Free Republic

U.S. crude oil surged more than 8% in early trading on Sunday evening as the market continued to react to supply disruptions stemming from Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the possibility of a ban on Russian oil and natural gas.West Texas Intermediate crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, traded 8% higher to above $125 a barrel, the highest since July 2008. At one point the price rose to $130.50 Sunday evening before retreating.The international benchmark, Brent crude, traded 9% higher to $128.60, also the highest price seen since 2008. Brent hit a high of $139.13 at one point overnight.“Oil...

Thoughts on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve… Americans have always been encouraged to be savers. This isn’t just a recent thing, from the do-it-yourself investment gurus of the late 20th century. It goes back to our very beginnings as a people: When Benjamin Franklin used various versions of the saying, “A penny saved is a penny earned” in Poor Richard’s Almanac in the mid-18th century, the concept was already a century old. One of our first political arguments as a nation under the Constitution was on the question of how best to incorporate and utilize banks; our Founding Fathers knew that...

Investing.com -- Crude oil prices hit $80 a barrel in the U.S. for the first time since 2014 on Friday, a day after the Energy Department played down reports that it was looking at selling barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. While crude prices generally set the trend for other fuels in the global market, the situation is currently reversed, as shortages of natural gas and coal – especially in Asian markets – create a rare opportunity for oil-powered electricity generators. Later Friday, Baker Hughes’ weekly rig count will show how far U.S. companies are reacting to the price...

Hurricane Ida’s disruption to the U.S. offshore energy production in the Gulf of Mexico is the worst in 16 years. It has already stressed domestic and global supply chains, further testing the Federal Reserve’s “transitory” inflation narrative. Gulf Coast hurricanes usually cause minor disruptions in offshore oil and gas production, but this time around, output from the region has been significantly reduced due to Ida’s 150 mph winds that damaged platforms and onshore support facilities. What this will mean is a long recovery for offshore energy production to return. Reuters notes 79% of the region’s offshore oil production remains offline....

According to a number of cognitive scientists, mankind uses its unique ability to reason primarily for justifying pre-held convictions, rather than for forming convictions. It is of critical importance for strategists to understand and acknowledge this human tendency, as it causes one to easily fall prey to a number of cognitive biases, which prevent one from seeing things how they really are, and more important for the strategist, how they are likely to become. One of the most famous cognitive biases is confirmation bias. As we prefer to be proven correct, we naturally incline towards information that confirms our views...

Pricewatch: There are several reasons for the apparent rip-off but the main one is tax about 8 hours ago A man called John contacted us to see if we could “challenge the consumer rip-off at the pumps”. Clearly annoyed, he pointed out that crude oil wholesale prices had declined dramatically in recent days as a result of the spread of coronavirus and a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia. The price of a barrel of oil had fallen over 30 per cent from $68 to $45 while the euro had strengthened versus the US dollar. “Yet the price of...

New York: Oil traders and analysts closely watching weekly US inventory figures have been scratching their heads in the last few weeks wondering one thing: Where are the missing barrels? US Energy Information Administration data Wednesday showed a crude supply adjustment factor — the difference between reported stockpiles and those implied by production, refinery demand, imports and exports — of more than 800,000 barrels a day. While that doesn’t seem like that much, it’s added up to more than 24 million barrels over the past four weeks, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in trading opportunities. The figure tends...

U.S. oil production is anticipated to break records in the next two years — and prices are primed to increase slightly, according to an energy study released Tuesday. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday that crude oil production is expected to rise to an average of 12.4 million barrels a day in 2019 and 13.2 million barrels per day in 2020. That’s up from January’s average of 12 million barrels a day and December’s 90,000 barrels a day. The expected increases will come from the Permian region of Texas and New Mexico, according to EIA. The U.S. last September...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The cost of gas is up across the country, including in Maryland, and is inching toward the highest price in three years. Gas is going up about a penny every other day — 15 cents in the past month. “We’ll be paying the highest prices for this time of year since 2014,” said Christine Delise with AAA. Gas companies are changing over to a different summer blend. To do so, some refineries shut down, leading to the classic market principal of supply and demand. A tighter supply means they can demand more for your fuel. Demand is...

Battle Axe Road cuts smack through the heart of New Mexico’s side of the Delaware Basin, a previously marginal zone along the Texas border that is rapidly turning the state into a global player in the oil industry. Industry titans like ExxonMobil, Chevron USA, EOG Resources and Concho are pumping billions of dollars into this zone, which holds some of the most-productive oilfield geology in the nation, said long-time oilman and former county commissioner Gregg Fulfer during a three-hour drive through the area. It’s the latest and most promising boom to emerge on the New Mexico side of the Permian...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil production shattered a 47-year output record in November and retreated slightly in December, the U.S. Energy Department said on Wednesday, as oil production from shale continued to upend global supply patterns. Oil output rose to 10.057 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, a revision from earlier estimates, the EIA said. December production fell 108,000 bpd to 9.949 million bpd, it said. November’s figure exceeded the 10.044 million barrels produced daily in November 1970. Output has surged in the last several years due to the shale boom, pushing the United States past Saudi...

The United States could soon be pumping more oil than any country on earth.The International Energy Agency said Friday that "explosive" increases in U.S. oil output would push the country ahead of Saudi Arabia this year and put it in a position to challenge top producer Russia. "This year promises to be a record-setting one for the U.S.," the IEA said. "Relentless growth should see the U.S. hit historic highs." That could be enough, it said, for U.S. production to "rival" that of Russia, which has partnered with Saudi Arabia on efforts to keep oil prices high by throttling output...

France’s government has unveiled a law to ban all production and exploration of oil and natural gas by 2040 on the country’s mainland and overseas territories. The move is largely symbolic, however, as France’s oil and gas production represents just 1 percent of national consumption — the rest is imported. Current drilling permits will not be renewed, according to the bill formally presented in a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. France currently has 63 oil and gas drilling projects on its territory. The ban, which the government claims is a world first, is part of a larger plan to wean the country’s...

But it is Venezuela that could be the mother of all black swan events. As Neil Dwane of Allianz Global Investors mentions, Venezuela has already seen the near total breakdown of society, and its oil production of 2 million barrels per day (mb/d) could unravel. It still seems unthinkable at this point, but becoming more likely by the day. Already, Venezuela’s oil production has eroded sharply, falling to 1.96 mb/d as of May 2017, down from 2.375 mb/d in 2015. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s refining industry is in shambles, forcing the country to increasingly import gasoline to avoid fuel shortages. The street...

An enormous fire erupted an ExxonMobil refinery in Texas on Thursday. The Baytown refinery caught fire, leading to huge black plumes of smoke into the air, visible from downtown Houston. Almost as soon as the fire in the ExxonMobil refinery was extinguished, we got reports of a fire in a refinery belonging to LyondellBasell Industries. CNBC reported that the fire occured in the coker unit of the refinery that can process over 263.000 barrels per day.

... If the European Union were a patient, its survival would be seen as threatened by multiple organ failure. That's the view of many experts as EU chiefs prepare for a Brussels summit that starts Thursday. Analysts believe the combined strain of these challenges may be unbearable for a political union and trading bloc that just 20 years ago seemed to be growing in stature as it proudly offered freedom and democracy - along with lucrative subsidies, military alliances and billions in foreign investment - to newly freed former Soviet satellites. Ian Kearns, director of the European Leadership Network research...

A long-time goal for many energy minded conservatives may finally be on the horizon this week as congress considers lifting the more than forty year old ban on crude oil exports as part of the next spending bill. This would be great news for jobs and the economy, not to mention giving us some leverage to help out our allies who currently rely on Russian and middle eastern suppliers. Unfortunately, such a boon still requires help from at least some of the Democrats and their attitude is less than positive. The Hill was interviewing a few of them on Thursday...

If the amount of oil in storage continues to climb it could send the price of crude — and probably gasoline, too — plummeting. The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months. For the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country’s main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma,...

American consumers are still enjoying relatively cheap gasoline as the summer driving season gets closer. AAA reports the national average at $2.44 this week, still below the 50-year inflation-adjusted average of $2.50 per gallon. If youÂ’d like cheaper gas, donÂ’t blame the oil and gas industry. ItÂ’s been the United Steelworkers and their strike against Royal Dutch Shell and 11 refineries that ticked gas back up more than anything, although it appears that a settlement has been accepted. Refiners are in their bi-annual season of throttling back production to perform maintenance and retool for the summer blends. So it begs...

With a glut of crude oil filling up pipelines and storage tanks and pushing down U.S. oil prices, Texas lawmakers are calling on Washington to lift its 40-year-old ban on crude exports. “Congress should update our national trade policy to benefit Texas producers and consumers,” state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said Monday at a joint hearing of the House Energy Resources Committee, which he chairs, and the chamber’s International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. More than 100 Texas House members have signed on to a proposed resolution that calls the ban a “relic from an era of scarcity and...