Category Archives: Energy markets

Could Oil Prices Plummet A Second Time?

Are oil prices heading for a double dip?

John Helmer: What is Russia’s Answer to Greece’s Plan B? Smile, Blow the Whistle, Pass the Red Card

Helmer’s post confirms our view that Russia will not rescue Greece, and for many of the same reasons that we’ve stated.

How Gaza’s Natural Gas Became the Epicenter of an International Power Struggle

Guess what? Almost all the current wars, uprisings, and other conflicts in the Middle East are connected by a single thread, which is also a threat: these conflicts are part of an increasingly frenzied competition to find, extract, and market fossil fuels whose future consumption is guaranteed to lead to a set of cataclysmic environmental crises.

Wolf Richter: What the Heck Has Suddenly Hit American Consumers?

Consumer confidence just hit an airpocket. Is this turbulence or a harbinger of things to come?

Wolf Richter: The Chilling Thing Devon Energy Just Said About the US Oil Glut

Devon Energy shows how companies are pumping even more oil with fewer rigs and lower investment, perpetuating the oil oversupply.

Why We Won’t See An Oil Price Rebound Yet

The front page of The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, February 10 proclaimed “Oil-Price Rebound Predicted” according to the IEA (International Energy Agency).

Not true.

Wolf Richter: Wall Street Has a Dream About the Price of Oil

Is Wall Street’s upbeat take on the prospect for a continued recovery in oil prices credible?

Even If Oil Rally Continues, Lenders Still At Risk

Even with the impressive oil rally of the last two days, it isn’t clear that producers and lenders are out of the woods. While some analysts contend that the bottom is in, others see the rally as technical, driven in large measure by short-covering, and likely to fade.

The uncertainty lies in what is really happening on the production side

U.S. Shale Boom May Come To Abrupt End

U.S tight oil production from shale plays will fall more quickly than most assume.

Crushing The U.S. Energy Export Dream

Exporting crude oil and natural gas from the United States is among the dumbest energy ideas of all time.

Paper Exposing Manipulation of Electricity Prices Stymied by Editor with Private Equity Ties

Yves here. I’ve read the detailed traffic between the author Eric L. Prentis and the publication in question, Energy Economics, and have also run them and his paper by academics who have or are supervising significant research and publication efforts. They gave the Prentis paper high marks and agreed that the actions of Energy Economics […]

Money Dries Up for Oil and Gas, Layoffs Spread, Write-Offs Start

When money was growing on trees even for junk-rated companies, and when Wall Street still performed miracles for a fee, thanks to the greatest credit bubble in US history, oil and gas drillers grabbed this money channeled to them from investors and refilled the ever deeper holes fracking was drilling into their balance sheets.

So Where Did All the Energy Debt Go?

A big puzzle, as oil prices have plunged and look unlikely to return to their former levels, is who is holding energy-related debt, particularly give the high level of issuance in 2014.

How the Shale Oil Revolution Has Affected US Oil and Gasoline Prices

The recent expansion of US shale oil production has captured the imagination of policymakers and industry analysts. It has fuelled visions of the US becoming independent of oil imports, of cheap US gasoline, of a rebirth of US manufacturing, and of net oil exports improving the US current account. This column asks how plausible these visions are, and examines the evidence to date.

Is Keystone Still Viable Amid Low Oil Prices?

Keystone illustrates the kabuki that passes for politics on the so-called left. In terms of climate change issues, it’s small beer, diverting resources and attention away from much bigger issues, like the environmental damage done by fracking and the need for much more aggressive energy conservation policies. Thus by virtue of having a small number of potential beneficiaries in economic terms from the project, it’s a group that Democrats could safely afford to alienate while throwing a bone to their base. The irony, as this post points out, is that the fracas may prove to be irrelevant now that oil prices have fallen so dramatically.