OPEC, for some quiet moments..

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“The US is going to give Saudi Arabia and Russia a run for their money in terms of being the world’s number-one oil producer,” says Daniel Yergin, author of the classic history of oil, The Prize. “And that just wasn’t on the cards five years ago. It’s that recent.”

The US shale revolution - FT.com

The question remains, what does this insider buying mean? To interpret what this means, no one is more qualified, than legendary Fidelity money manager Peter Lynch. In Chapter 8 of his book, One Up On Wall Street, Peter Lynch explains the 13 characteristics of a perfect stock. One of these characteristics is that insiders of the company are purchasing company stock. Lynch claims that there is no better hint for potential success, than when insiders are investing their own money in the company. (One Up On Wall Street, Peter Lynch, P.142)

How To Spot An Undervalued Oil Company

BP’s former CEO Tony Hayward agrees with OPEC that its strategy of maintaining the oil glut and thereby helping to drive down prices will quickly crush the US shale boom and that oil prices will rally sooner than many people expect.

Former BP Chief Sees Oil Price Rebound Soon

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Oil needs to recover to $65/bbl for U.S. drillers to tap a pent-up supply locked in shale wells and unleash more crude on markets than is produced by Libya. Dipping into this “fracklog” would add an extra 500,000 bopd of oil into the market by the end of next year, Bloomberg Intelligence said in an analysis. Producers in oil and gas fields from Texas to Pennsylvania have 4,731 idled wells at their disposal.

Oil at $65 could free 500,000 bopd from shale ’fracklog’

Since hitting a peak of 1,609 rigs back in October 2014, the number of US oil rigs is down more than 55%. Baker Hughes said back in January that during past oil downturns, the number of rigs has declined by about 40%-60%.

Traders think oil price decline is over - Business Insider

The United States is poised to flood world markets with once-unthinkable quantities of liquefied natural gas as soon as this year, profoundly changing the geo-politics of global energy and posing a major threat to Russian gas dominance in Europe. "We anticipate becoming big players, and I think we'll have a big impact," said the Ernest Moniz, the US Energy Secretary. "We're going to influence the whole global LNG market."

US to launch blitz of gas exports, eyes global energy dominance - Telegraph

Mr Mueller said it had taken his company 17 days to drill a 2,600 ft well as recently as 2007. It has just drilled a 5,400 ft well in six days. "The new technology is amazing. We have a drill-bit with a chip inside that makes its own changes," he said.

US to launch blitz of gas exports, eyes global energy dominance - Telegraph

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What is remarkable is that US drillers can produce a third more natural gas today with 280 rigs than they did in 2009 with 1,200 rigs. Total shale output has soared to over 350 BCM from almost nothing a decade ago. It now makes up half of US gas production.

US to launch blitz of gas exports, eyes global energy dominance - Telegraph

America's parallel drive for shale oil is equally breath-taking. Scott Sheffield, head of Pioneer Natural Resources, said his company has discovered huge reserves in the vast Permian Basin of West Texas. "We think the Permian could produce 5-6m barrels a day (b/d) in the long-term," he said. It is a staggering claim. This would be more than Saudi Arabia's giant Ghawar field, the biggest in the world.

US to launch blitz of gas exports, eyes global energy dominance - Telegraph

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, will meet any demand for its crude as the kingdom seeks to keep customers happy and maintain a balanced market, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the deputy oil minister, said. The oil market is in “excellent” condition, he told reporters Monday in the eastern city of Khobar, without elaborating. Benchmark Brent crude has gained 13% this year and was trading 46 cents lower at $64.82/bbl at 10:56 a.m. in London.

Saudi prince sees ‘excellent’ oil market as kingdom meets demand

Inpex Corporation has acquired a 5% participating interest in the ADCO Onshore Concession in Abu Dhabi, the Tokyo-based company said Monday. The acquisition is based on a 40-year agreement with the Supreme Petroleum Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) effective Jan. 1, 2015, following Inpex's participation in a bid.

Japan’s Inpex buys stake in Abu Dhabi oil fields

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IHS said an astonishing thing is happening as frackers keep discovering cleverer ways to extract oil, and switch tactically to better wells. Costs may plummet by 45pc this year, and by 60pc to 70pc before the end of 2016. "Break-even prices are going down across the board," said the group's Raoul LeBlanc.

Oil slump may deepen as US shale fights Opec to a standstill - Telegraph

As candidates for the 2016 U.S. general election gear up for a White House run, one villain of recent campaign cycles will be conspicuously absent: the cartel known as OPEC. With the U.S. oil boom helping the world's largest economy churn out more than 9 million barrels per day (bpd), its highest in about three decades and up 80 percent since 2008, energy prices appear to be sidelined as political theater. Should current trends continue-prices of Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate are trading near their lowest levels in nearly 10 years-energy prices are unlikely to figure prominently in the coming presidential election.

Why the US won't have OPEC to kick around in 2016 - Yahoo Finance

Oil is up more than 30 percent since its low in March and one oil policy expert thinks it's going to continue to move higher. Kent Moors, executive chair of the Global Energy Symposium, said he sees "restrained upside moving forward." He's predicting a gradual increase to about $70-$73 per barrel for Brent (Intercontinental Exchange Europe: @LCO.1) and $60-$65 for U.S. crude (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) by mid-July.

Oil rally over? Experts disagree - Yahoo Finance

Russia, the world’s biggest energy exporter, will meet with OPEC before the group next gathers in June to discuss whether to adjust production limits, amid prices that are almost half their level of 10 months ago. Talks with the 12-nation group will take place on June 2-3, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Tuesday in Moscow. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries gathers in Vienna on June 5 with no signs so far that it will alter plans to maintain output amid a surplus. Novak said April 15 that a meeting with OPEC would happen in June, without giving a date.

Russia plans to meet with OPEC before group’s June gathering

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U.S. benchmark oil prices surged to a four-month high after stockpiles at the nation’s biggest storage hub fell for the first time since November. The drop in crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the main delivery point for West Texas Intermediate contracts, boosted optimism a supply glut will ease in the coming months.

Oil jumps as decline in Cushing stockpiles signals glut to ease

As U.S. producers slashed spending, idled rigs, withheld completions, and neared the ceiling on domestic storage capacity, OPEC generally maintained its high production in the first quarter. Despite OPEC members boosting crude production by 810,000 bopd during March, recent short-term forecasts from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show continued growth in US production through the second quarter. However, as low oil prices and spending reductions continue to impact domestic producers, the EIA expects production to slow in the second half of 2015.

EY: Oil’s new swing producer balances storage capacity amid low prices

Returns on state pension funds from investments in oil and natural gas companies continue to provide strong earnings for public pension retirees, including America’s teachers, firefighters and police officers, according to a Sonecon study released Tuesday by API. On average, $1 invested in oil and natural gas stocks in 2005 was worth $2.30 in 2013. By contrast, $1 invested in all other assets over the same period was worth $1.68.

Oil, gas stocks outperform other assets in state pension funds, study finds

Papua New Guinea -- InterOil Corporation has begun flow testing at the Elk-Antelope gas field in Papua New Guinea as part of the field appraisal. The Antelope-5 flow rate is constrained by reservoir engineers to a maximum test rate of about 70 MMcfgd. Dr Hession said pressure gauges are planned to be placed in the field to monitor the pressure response during an extended test of Antelope-5. "Antelope-5 has the best reservoir thickness, quality and fracture density of all wells on the field, which signifies a world-class reservoir," Dr Hession said.

Flow testing starts at Antelope field in Papua New Guinea

[Getitrt2]

That extremely positive statement by Hession on Antelope 5 was in the March 17 year end report, but it seems to be getting more press attention now in conjuction with the news on extended flow tests. Interesting.

[admin]

One starts to glimpse the extraordinary possibility that the US oil industry could be the last one standing in a long and bitter price war for global market share, or may at least emerge as an energy superpower with greater political staying-power than Opec.

Oil slump may deepen as US shale fights Opec to a standstill - Telegraph

U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., have urged their Senate colleagues to support an amendment to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Act that would end the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports and allow American producers to compete with Iran on the global market.

U.S. oil export ban is de facto sanctions regime against ourselves, Senate hears

One million barrels of oil. Enough to fill more than 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools. And there it sat in tanks outside San Francisco—for three years—despite crude prices that topped $100/bbl.

Orphaned oil rejected by U.S. refiners sails to Asia

In its mid-year update to the 2015 Canadian Drilling Activity Forecast, released Thursday, the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) is forecasting a total of only 5,320 wells to be drilled across Canada in 2015. This decrease of 4,780 wells from PSAC’s original drilling forecast, released in October 2014, represents a 47% drop.

PSAC cuts 2015 Canadian drilling forecast in half

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Carbon Tracker says companies have committed $1.1 trillion over the next decade to projects that require prices above $95 to break even, far above Brent crude's current price of $65. The group calculates that 92pc of Canada's oil sands need prices of $80 to cover costs. Many of the Arctic and ultra-deepwater projects need $120, or even $150. Petrobras, Statoil, Total, BP, BG, Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and Repsol are together investing $340bn in these inhospitable zones.

G20 to probe 'carbon bubble' risk to global financial system - Telegraph

Mexico hopes to achieve its potential as a more important player on the world oil stage after years of underinvestment and decline. But industry officials say with the collapse in oil prices, it may take longer for Mexico to realize the benefits of the outside investments it hopes to attract. It will also take time for offshore and onshore exploration to pay off.

Mexico's dream of being the next global oil-boom story

Oil prices had been sliding, but on Oct. 1, the future still looked bright. For the next three months, oil would average $97 a barrel, according to a Bloomberg survey of 36 analysts. The first quarter of 2015 would be even better. The most pessimistic among them called for $91 a barrel.  Ha.

These Titans of Oil Are Experts at Making Bold Predictions* - Bloomberg Business

There's no one individual who has the power to shake the world oil markets quite like Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's octogenarian oil minister. So the replacement of al-Naimi as chairman of state-owned Aramco with its former CEO Khalid al-Falih is being read as a signal by oil traders that he could now be the front runner for oil minister when al-Naimi retires. He was also named to the post of health minister in a series of key appointments by King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, which included a sweeping succession plan with a new generation in line.

Meet the man who could be next ruler of oil markets - Yahoo Finance

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Hedge funds and other money managers raised their bets on rising Brent crude oil prices for a fifth week in a row to a new record, exchange data showed on Monday. Speculators increased net long positions in Brent futures and options by 8,351 contracts to 271,929 in the week to April 21, InterContinental Exchange (ICE) data showed, the highest level since records began in 2011.

Hedge funds raise bets on rising Brent price to new record - Yahoo Finance

Uncertainty hit oil markets on Wednesday, with analysts contemplating what a major reshuffle of Saudi Arabia's ruling elite might meant for the commodity. On Wednesday, it was announced that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz had appointed a new heir and rotated some of the top ministerial jobs, accelerating the personnel changes set in motion when he took the throne in January.

Saudi King Salman's royal reshuffle: what it means for oil

China’s two largest state-backed oil traders are demonstrating their growing clout in the Middle East, dominating dealing this month in the key crude contracts that help set prices for the region. Chinaoil, the trading arm of state-run China National Petroleum Corp, has bought 45 cargoes of Oman and Abu Dhabi crude in April, snapping up 22.5m barrels or the equivalent of a quarter of the world’s daily crude oil consumption.

China oil traders become stronger force - FT.com

Mr Tillerson said this is more or less what happened in the sister market for US shale gas. In 2009, some 1,200 rigs produced 5.5bn cubic feet (bcf) of gas per day at a market price near $8. Today the price is just $2.50. Nobody would have believed back then that the industry would continue boosting supply to 7.3 bcf, and be able to do so with just 280 rigs.

Oil slump may deepen as US shale fights Opec to a standstill - Telegraph

[Putncalls]

With respect the the Telegraph. The reason NG is 2.50 in the US is because it's a byproduct of oil production. The oil in the shale is very light and mixed with NG. It's so light you can almost put it in a diesel motor or burn it as kerosine. Over production of a money losing commodity is not the way capitalism works.