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Will Oil Hit $80 This Summer?

India, the world's third-largest oil importer, is the latest coronavirus hotspot. It has recently hit a record-breaking number of new daily coronavirus cases—a statistic that dented oil demand and pressured oil prices. OPEC+, out of its own necessity, has intervened in the oil market on the supply side of the equation to offset the pandemic-depressed oil demand. And despite the group's relative success at curbing oil production to prevent excess oil inventories from ballooning before the market fully recovers, India's booming case counts have prevented oil prices from a quicker recovery.

The Death Of U.S. Shale Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

The current year marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. shale boom, a period in which fracking technology across such states as Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wyoming helped establish the nation as a top oil and gas producer.  Unfortunately, high costs of production compared with conventional drilling has led to the sector consistently printing red ink and resulted in considerable destruction of shareholder value. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent oil price crash has led to investors souring on the industry further, credit becoming harder to come by, and a cross-section of Wall Street calling the end to the sector. 

China Sets Its Sights On Global EV Dominance

The world's largest automotive market, China, is looking to become a dominant player in the rising global electric vehicle market. Chinese EV manufacturers are expected to start expanding overseas, while Beijing already controls a large part of the global EV supply chain, beginning with critical minerals processing.  The United States has started to realize that China could dominate the future of transportation—electric transportation—if it does not counter the current Chinese influence over critical parts of the EV supply chain, from battery metals sourcing and processing to battery manufacturing. 

China Ramps Up U.S. Crude Oil Imports As Elections Near

China has been buying a lot of U.S. crude oil lately, perhaps in a belated attempt to fulfill some of the energy import quotas agreed with Washington last year or perhaps in a bid to take advantage of supercheap U.S. crude. But the buying spree is about to end.

Will U.S. Shale Survive If Oil Hits $40?

Within a month, the U.S. oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate recorded two first-of-a-kind events. First, it fell below zero on April 20. Then, it soared up so high it is about to book its best month ever, CNBC's Pippa Stevens noted in a recent commentary. Still, many analysts and other observers remain wary of any premature optimism. They have a good reason to be.

The Cannabis Industry's Dirty Energy Secret

Your average marijuana plant is a rather unimposing, forest green weed that blends well with nature. The dirty truth, however, is that the business of growing cannabis is anything but green. In fact, the growing of pot is so power-intensive that its ecological footprint is quickly becoming an environmental nightmare. 

The $344 billion cannabis industry is one of the country's most energy-intensive in the world, frequently demanding an array of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, fans and 24-hour indoor lighting rigs at multiple growing sites. 

The Worst Is Over For Oil Markets

Some analysts see the world dodging a recession next year, which provides some upward room for oil prices. 

Last week, the IEA warned last week that "the hefty supply cushion" building up in the first half of 2020 will cause OPEC+ problems as the group tries to balance the oil market. Part of the reason for another potential surplus is the steep drop in demand growth this year, forcing oil forecasters to make multiple downward revisions to their projections. 

"With consumption growth of just 830 thousand b/d YoY in 2019, global oil demand has easily expanded at the lowest rate since the global financial crisis 10 years ago," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note. 

Weakening Shale Productivity "VERY Bullish" For Oil Prices

After years of improvements in drilling techniques and impressive "efficiency gains," there is now evidence that the U.S. shale industry is reaching the end of the road on well productivity. A report earlier this month from Raymond James & Associates finds that the U.S. shale industry may struggling to achieve further productivity gains. If these improvements begin to fizzle out, it could result in "an inflection point in future global oil supply/demand balances," the investment bank said.

The Oil Crisis Saudi Arabia Can't Solve

Saudi Arabia's CEO Amin Nasr's message to the press that oil flows to the market are guaranteed, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

From Ice Cream To Toilet Seats: The Most Bizarre Uses For Gold

It's currency. It's luxury. It's even dessert. But those are only the base uses of gold. This is the stuff of gods, big and small. Since the dawn of civilization it has held sway over spirit and soul and what the ancient Egyptians knew then, everyone still knows now: Gold is King, no matter what.

The Oil Crisis Saudi Arabia Can't Solve

Is Trump Reversing Course On Iran?

The Trump administration is attempting to dial down the tension with Iran, lowering the risk of military conflict and pushing for diplomatic negotiations.

The Marijuana Industry's Dirty Little Secret

The cannabis industry is hiding a dirty little secret According to Evan Mills, a California-based energy and climate change scientist, the marijuana industry has a major problem...and it's likely to get worse before it gets better. "Legislators and energy agencies have largely turned a blind eye to the carbon footprint of indoor cultivation, which already belches out greenhouse-gas emissions equal to that from 3 million cars in America," says Mills.

IEA: Renewables Growth Is Stalling

Renewable energy deployment stalled out last year, raising alarm bells about the pace of the clean energy transition. In 2018, total deployment of renewable energy stood at about 180 gigawatts (GW), which was the same as the previous year. It was the first time since 2001 that capacity failed to increase year-on-year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Can Saudi Arabia Still Sway The Oil Market?

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter and OPEC's largest producer, has influenced the oil market and oil flows since the middle of the 20th century. Shortly after the 21st century began, one of Saudi Arabia's key customers made its first steps toward becoming one of the Kingdom's main competitors on the global oil market: the United States began fracking for oil in the mid-2000s.

Smart Money Is Piling Into Oil

Oil prices jumped to five-month highs this week, pushed higher by a bullish cocktail of supply outages, geopolitical unrest and a sputtering shale sector. The most recent factor is the sudden eruption of the long simmering feud in Libya between rival factions. The attack on Tripoli by the Libyan National Army (LNA), a militia led by Khalifa Haftar, led to a spike in oil prices on Monday as the market priced in the possibility of supply outages.

The World's Largest Oil Company And Petrochemical Company Merge

The long awaited Saudi Aramco acquisition of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is finally here. With a statement to the press, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser reported that Aramco has acquired a 70 percent stake in SABIC, with an estimated value of $69.1 billion. Aramco's CEO Nasser reiterated that the "deal is a major step in accelerating Saudi Aramco's transformative downstream growth strategy".

The $32 Trillion Push To Disrupt The Entire Oil Industry

Global oil and gas companies are increasingly facing an uphill battle as global warming policies are taking their toll. Most analysts and market watchers are focusing on peak oil demand scenarios, but the reality could be much darker. International oil companies (IOCs) are likely to face a Black Swan scenario, which could end up being a boon for state-owned oil companies (NOCs).

Saudi Arabia: We'll Pump The World's Very Last Barrel Of Oil

Saudi Arabia isn't buying the peak oil demand narrative. OPEC's largest producer continues to expect global oil demand to keep rising at least by 2040 and sees itself as the oil producer best equipped to continue meeting that demand, thanks to its very low production costs.

Huge Backlog Could Trigger New Wave Of Shale Oil

The number of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) in the U.S. shale patch has skyrocketed by roughly 60 percent over the past two years. That leaves a rather large backlog that could add a wave of new supply, even if the pace of drilling begins to slow.