Authored by Nick Cuningham via OilPrice.com,
The EIA has once again undercut its previous estimates for U.S. oil production, offering further evidence that the U.S. shale industry is not producing as much as everyone thinks.
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
The dramatic declines in the costs of oil production will be boosting supply at the very moment that demand is falling.
Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,
Global oil inventories have started to decline and the supply/demand balance will soon tip into a deficit, if it hasn’t already. That will accelerate the drawdowns in crude oil stocks, and bring the market back into “balance,” providing a lift to oil prices.
That, at least, is the working assumption. But there are a series of gigantic question marks out there – a handful of countries could upend the theory that the oil market is on a smooth trajectory towards balance.
Authored by Rakesh Upadhyay via OilPrice.com,
OPEC’s worries about the booming U.S. oil production have increased significantly with the big three oil companies’ interest in shale. Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc, and Chevron Corp., are planning $10 billion of investments in shale in 2017, a quantum jump compared to previous years. All the naysayers who doubted the longevity of the shale oil industry may have to modify their forecasts.
Less than two months ago, after the Algiers meeting but before the Vienna OPEC summit when speculation was rife that the cartel would be unable to reach a deal to cut production, we reported that "US Oil Producers Are Hedging At Levels Not Seen Since 2007" in which we wrote that "while OPEC has been busy desperately jawboning oil higher, US producers have been worried about oil's reacquaintance with gravity. As a result, as the EIA reports, the amount of WTI short positions held be producers and merchants is just shy of a decade high."