OPEC, for some quiet moments..

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The cost of failing to reach a deal this month is rising for OPEC as rival producers are set to revive production in 2017, the International Energy Agency predicted. Crude prices may retreat again amid “relentless global supply growth” unless the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries enacts “significant” output cuts, the IEA said in its monthly report on Thursday. Non-members such as Brazil, Canada, Kazakhstan and Russia will raise output by 500,000 bpd in 2017, after enduring their biggest slump in more than two decades, the agency said.

Oil output surge piles pressure on OPEC as IEA warns on price

Ophir Energy and OneLNGSM, a joint venture between subsidiaries of Golar LNG and Schlumberger, have signed a binding agreement to establish a joint operating company (JOC) to develop the Fortuna project, in Block R, offshore Equatorial Guinea.

Schlumberger, Ophir, Golar to develop $2-billion Fortuna FLNG project

U.S. natural gas stockpiles climbed to a record last week as warm weather curtailed demand for the heating fuel, according to a U.S. government report. Natural gas inventories rose by 54 Bcf in the week ended Nov. 4 to 4.017 Tcf, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed Thursday. That topples the high reached last November and breaks a seven-month streak of below-average storage gains.

America’s natural gas supply rises to a record amid muted demand

Advanced batteries could “tip the oil market from growth to contraction earlier than anticipated,” concludes the credit rating agency Fitch in a new study. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has already told investors to expect the ‘big crash’ in oil by 2028 — and as early as 2023. Fitch Ratings agency warns that if recent technology trends continue, we may see an “investor death spiral” as first the smart money — and then everyone else’s — sell off oil company assets (bonds and stocks). That would in turn increase the industry’s costs for both debt and equity — while oil prices would be stuck at low levels as the world hits peak demand. This would affect industries whose stocks and bonds are cumulatively valued in the trillions of dollars. In particular, Fitch notes, “an acceleration of the electrification of transport infrastructure would be resoundingly negative for the oil sector’s credit profile.”

Electric car revolution may drive oil ‘investor death spiral’