The world is past the era of growing crude oil demand and it may never recover to pre-pandemic levels
The crude games continue. While crude oil markets continue to be sloppy, despite the possibility of a small bull run just before the weekend, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies in OPEC-plus are opting to keep their cards close to their chests. Avoiding any hint about their next steps, after their virtual…
The crude oil demand picture remains murky at best. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has cut its 2021 demand growth outlook to 6.5 million barrels per day (bpd), 500,000 bpd lower than projected last month. Based on patterns, the EIA now expects Chinese demand to grow by one million bpd next year rather than…
Over a fifth of Europe’s energy was generated by solar panels and wind turbines in the first half of 2020
Peak oil demand is approaching fast – and earlier than anticipated. It’s not that oil won’t be required in the years and decades to come. It will still be in demand. But the world won’t be critically, crucially and strategically dependent on oil, as it is today. This year may be the turning point for…
Despite some oil industry analysts and observers looking at the glass as half full, there still seems to be ample reasons for gloom
Forecasting crude oil markets remains a matter of perspective. Global oil demand growth is expected to taper off, journalist and analyst Julianne Geiger says, referencing the latest report from energy consultancy IHS Markit. Crude oil demand sits at 89 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, IHS Markit says. It’s expected to rise, then level off at…
The pandemic has caused some major producers to pause and defer investments in the petrochemical sector
With the crude oil landscape changing rapidly, the refining industry is faced with major adjustments. Several oil refiners have announced permanent closures in the United States and Asia, while some high-cost refineries in Europe could also be shut down over the next few years. Margins for processing crude into fuels are expected to remain depressed,…
Supported by all these bullish factors, Brent crude spot prices rose. Yet oil markets also face bearish pressures
Faced with gloom and some good news at the same time, crude oil markets continue to be in a quandary. Retrenchment and lack of capital investment could eventually lead to crude shortages, argued David Messler in a piece in Oilprice.com in June. The shortage could result in firming up of oil prices. Messler also points…
The pain is only just beginning to ripple through the U.S. industry in the form of bankruptcies and layoffs
In love and war, everything is fair. And U.S. President Donald Trump knows that well. After all, to him, the re-election bid is nothing but war. While campaigning in Midland, a region deep in the heart of the west Texas oil patch, Trump underlined: “And now we're back,” proclaiming euphorically, “and now we're just going…
The game is up: Oil and gas companies can no longer mask their financial frailty
The decline in oil demand accelerated by Covid-19 may be a sign of the future. Forty publicly-traded U.S. oil producers wrote down a collective $48 billion worth of the value of their assets in the first quarter of 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. Quoting Deloitte, Oilprice.com points out that the collapse in crude…
Despite the recent unprecedented output cuts by oil-producing countries, crude continues to trade around $40 a barrel
Global economies are in distress. In the United States, the world’s largest economy, jobless claims rose last week for the first time since March. With measures to contain the COVID-19 virus keeping drivers off the road, recent data shows gasoline demand edging even lower. In South Korea, a large crude oil consumer, the economy is…
Iran, Venezuela and Libya have virtually been forced out of production. But that hasn’t made the lives of other producers easier
An uneven playing field exists in the crude oil marketplace. Two major producers, Iran and Venezuela, face sanctions on their oil sales from the United States. Meanwhile, Libya is in the midst of civil strife. These circumstances mean a considerable volume of oil isn’t available to the markets. Yet the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries…