Just as Wall Street says the U.S. is running out of room to store oil, it turns out there’s another 20 million barrels of empty space. Where? Right at the top of the tanks. A supply glut has dragged US crude for May delivery almost $10 a barrel below contracts a year out. This market structure, known as contango, has encouraged traders to shove the most oil in 80 years into storage so they can sell it for more in the future.
Oil major Shell could soon be allowed to drill for oil in the Arctic. A decision on whether to grant permission will be made by the US Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell later this week. If approved, the company would be able to drill in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of the Arctic near Alaska.
Oil erased loses as a weaker dollar made commodities priced in the US currency more attractive to investors. The dollar dropped against all but two of its 16 major counterparts, extending last week’s decline, which was the biggest in three years, as the Federal Reserve damped the outlook for higher rates. Crude fell as much as 2.7% in New York earlier as Saudi Arabia’s comments that it’s pumping crude near a record pace signaled that the global supply glut will persist.
Thousands of Texans who prowled county courthouses, poring over dusty deeds and maps to cash in on the biggest oil boom in decades, are seeing their work go bust. Land managers, or landmen as they’re known, are part of a once dying oil patch profession resurrected when production soared. With the price of crude close to a six-year low of about $46 a barrel, less than half what it was nine months ago, they’re among the first to be hit by an energy-industry rout cascading through the economy. “Almost all the landmen I know have had to take either a serious pay cut, or are working part time or laid off,” said Gates Mueller, 29, an independent landman in San Antonio who lost his job in December. Just about every facet of the US oil-and-gas industry is being affected by the market’s slide, from pipeline welding to truck driving to geological exploration.
The US Government is set to unveil rules for oil companies that frack on federal land. The proposals are expected to include a number of safety measures but are not expected to have as strict oversight as some environmental groups want.
Workers fired from US shale fields after the collapse in oil prices could soon have a new boss: the nation some blame for driving that decline. The state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Saudi Aramco, is posting new job ads online aiming to snap up experts in extracting oil from shale as the country seeks to become a leader in that rapidly expanding effort. Tens of thousands of US workers have been fired since November as oil prices plunged because of oversupplies, driven in part by an OPEC decision supported by Saudi Arabia. That’s now giving Saudi Aramco a better chance to lure experienced workers to its own shale formations. Difficult living conditions had previously made the country a hard sell, said Tobias Read, chief executive officer of Swift Worldwide Resources, a recruiting firm.
DALLAS — Amid all the pessimism surrounding the plunge in oil prices since mid-2014 and the havoc it has unleashed on the industry, there’s a sense of calm in the sprawling conference room just north of downtown Dallas. I’m sitting next to the legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who doesn’t seem worried at all. Ask Pickens what’s going to happen with oil prices, and rattles off an optimistic scenario: The US rig count will drop to somewhere between 750 and 1,000 working rigs (currently, it’s at a five-year low of 1,192). Then, the market will balance off U.S. production and West Texas Intermediate crude will return to about $70 a barrel by year’s end.
An American multinational corporation has today announced the £5million sale of its subsidiary petroleum company. The Texas-based Bayside Corporation has sold the Bayside Petroleum Company to Technis Energy.
While US drilling on land has fallen along with the price of crude, the risky and expensive drive to pull oil from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico is showing little evidence of a slowdown. Oil rigs working in the Gulf will increase by more than 30% this year compared with 2014, according to data from Wood Mackenzie, an industry consultant. At the same time, the number of land-based rigs has fallen by a third since October, bearing the brunt of industry-wide cutbacks that have shed tens of thousands of jobs in the US.
The principal funder of a fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador has reached a settlement agreement with the oil major. James Russell DeLeon has withdrawn financial support from the Ecuador litigation and as a result Chevron has agreed to release all claims against him. The company had brought claims against Mr DeLeon in Gibraltar where he maintains a residence for his role in funding and advancing the Ecuadorian lawsuit.
An oil train with 109 cars derailed near a West Virginia town Monday, causing as many as 15 tankers to catch fire and a state of emergency to be declared in two counties. Governor Earl Ray Tomblin issued the emergency for Kanawha and Fayette counties as CSX Corp., the train’s operator, worked with emergency responders at the scene in frigid conditions. One person was being treated for potential smoke inhalation after the derailment, while no other injuries were reported, according to the Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad and a state official.
A US oil and gas firm has mounted action against two energy companies over an alleged breach of obligation. Target Energy Limited’s subsidiary TELA Garwood LP has filed a lawsuit in Harris County District Court, in Houston, Texas, against Victory Energy Corporation and Aurora Energy Partners. The law suit charge alleges that Aurora, acting through partner, Victory, breached an obligation to purchase some of TELA Garwood’s interests in the West Texas Fairway Project.
The US drilling frenzy is over. What’s not is the boom in oil production. While companies have idled 151 rigs in five shale formations since reaching a peak of 1,157 in October, they’ll need to park another 200 for growth to stall, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. Output there will reach a record 5.468 million barrels a day in March even though the number of rigs exploring for oil is the lowest since 2013. The spending cuts led to speculation that US gains would slow, eroding a global supply glut that sent prices tumbling last year.
Beset by falling prices, the oil industry is looking at about 50,000 existing wells in the U.S. that may be candidates for a second wave of fracking, using techniques that didn’t exist when they were first drilled. New wells can cost as much as $8 million, while re-fracking costs about $2 million, significant savings when the price of crude is hovering close to $50 a barrel, according to Halliburton Co., the world’s biggest provider of hydraulic fracturing services. While re-fracking offered mixed results in the past, earning it the nickname “pump and pray,” the oil crash is forcing companies to pursue new technologies to produce oil more cheaply.
Alberta is in discussions with Alaska about shipping oil-sands crude through the US state to the Pacific as approval for the southbound Keystone XL pipeline languishes in Washington. The Alaska plan would involve constructing a pipeline along the Mackenzie River valley and then west to existing ports on the US coast, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice said in an interview in New York. Alaskan ports have been staging points for maritime crude shipments for decades.
The United Steelworkers union, which represents employees at more than 200 US oil refineries, terminals, pipelines and chemical plants, began a strike at nine sites on Sunday, the biggest walkout called since 1980. The USW started the work stoppage after failing to reach agreement on a labor contract that expired Sunday, saying in a statement that it “had no choice.” The union rejected five contract offers made by Royal Dutch Shell Plc on behalf of oil companies including Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. since negotiations began on January 21.
Phillips 66, the largest US refiner by market value, said profit from the sale of gasoline and other fuels tripled in the fourth quarter as prices fell to a five-year low. Net income rose to $1.15 billion, or $2.05 a share, from $826 million, or $1.37, a year earlier, the Houston-based company said in a statement. Excluding one-time items, per-share profit exceeded the $1.41 average of 16 analysts’ estimates compiled.
Blackstone Group LP, the biggest alternative-asset manager, is “scrambling” to invest more than $10 billion in energy companies after the price of oil plunged, the firm’s president said. “Our people are scrambling and trying to come up for air,” Tony James said on a call with reporters today discussing Blackstone’s fourth-quarter earnings. “Everything just got hammered at once. There’s clearly some very interesting values in the credit markets just buying debt at big discounts to face and getting equity-like returns.”
Oil traded near the lowest price in almost six years in New York after US crude stockpiles climbed to the highest level since at least 1982. West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed following Wednesday’s 3.9 %drop. Crude inventories in the US, the world’s biggest oil consumer, expanded by 8.87 million barrels to 406.7 million last week, the Energy Information Administration reported. Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it will cut $15 billion of spending over the next three years.
The Obama administration proposed opening to offshore drilling an area from Virginia to Georgia in a policy shift sought by energy companies but opposed by environmentalists worried about resorts such as the Outer Banks or Myrtle Beach. The offshore plan for 2017-2022 marks the second time President Barack Obama has recommended unlocking areas in the US Atlantic for oil drilling, and it drew a swift retort from allies who say the payoff doesn’t justify the risk of a spill along the populated coast. The agency said Atlantic leases won’t be auctioned for at least six years and drilling wouldn’t start for several more years.
Billionaire pipeline owner Kelcy Warren knows better than most how the tumultuous energy market is ripe for empire-building. Warren, who built a fortune worth $5.3 billion over the past 15 years through more than a dozen acquisitions, made a first move Monday designed to pave the way for more deals. His Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) agreed to pay $11 billion to consolidate its Regency Energy Partners LP (RGP) unit under one roof.
Technip has been awarded two subsea contracts in the Gulf of Mexico by Stone Energy. The flexible pipe supply contract and an installation contract are for the Amethyst field located at the Mississippi Canyon 26. The first contract includes engineering, procurement, fabrication, assembly and testing of a five-inch production static riser.
Oil extended losses to trade near an almost six-year low as OPEC’s warning that prices may surge without new investment in production failed to shift the market’s focus from more immediate signs of a global supply glut. Futures fell as much as 0.6% in New York. A spike to $200 a barrel is possible without spending for the long term, according to OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri. US crude inventories probably rose to 402.1 million barrels last week, the most in records dating back to August 1982, a survey shows before a government report on Wednesday.
The US onshore rig count has continued a steady decline according to research by the Gaffney, Cline and Associates (GCA) oil and gas monitor. It was launched earlier this month to track onshore and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) activity it the wake of lower oil prices. The Baker Hughes rig count showed a fall of a further 43 over the past week in the US onshore total, with this now having declined by 297 from a high of 1,876 in November last year down to 1,579 this month.
President Barack Obama will call on the US congress to expand protection of Alaska’s Arctic refuge to 12million acres. The move will prohibit oil and gas drilling in a region with more than one million acres of oil heavy coast. The proposal was unveiled by the Interior Department at the weekend.