Full U.S. Energy Independence Is Impossible (31 October 2018): By Gregory Brew - Establishing American “energy dominance” has been a key policy objective of the Trump Administration. Since coming to office, President Donald S. Trump has made increasing U.S. energy production and energy exports a priority. And for a time, it looked like he might pull it off. Oil production has doubled since 2008. This year American oil output exceeded 10 million bpd for the first time in decades. Production from the shale revolution, particularly the Permian Basin of East Texas, has been booming. Investment into new leases both onshore and off has increased, as the Trump Administration has opened up federal land and the entire coastal plain for drilling. (Source: Oil Price)
High Oil Prices Are Already Destroying Demand (30 October 2018): By Irina Slav - Crude oil prices have gone up high enough to begin hurting demand for the commodity, the chief of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said as quoted by Reuters on the sidelines of an industry event in Singapore. Birol noted the adverse effect of higher oil prices on large emerging economies in particular, including India and Indonesia, saying, “Many countries’ current account deficits have been affected by high oil prices.” (Source: Oil Price)
Big Oil Won’t Spend Despite Fat Profits (29 October 2018): By Nick Cunningham - Higher oil prices are expected to leave the oil industry flush with cash, but the “capital discipline” mantra remains. Market watchers have wondered whether top oil executives would eschew with tight-fisted spending plans once their pockets fattened up again. “We're laser focused on disciplined free cash flow generation and strong execution. Discipline means, we're not chasing higher prices by ramping up activity,” ConocoPhillips’ CEO Ryan Lance told investors on an earnings call. “By staying disciplined, we generate strong free cash flow, which we then allocate in a shareholder-friendly way.” He went on to stress how committed the company was to boosting the quarterly dividend and share buyback program. (Source: Oil Price)
Are OPEC And Its Allies Producing Too Much Oil? (25 October 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - OPEC and its Russia-led non-OPEC partners in the production cut deal may have to change course in the current relaxing of the cuts, due to increased inventories in recent weeks and uncertainties about the global economy, a panel of the oil producers part of the pact saidon Thursday. The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which met to review the state of the production cuts pact and the short-term prospects of the oil market, said that its review of the recent market fundamentals showed “a very comfortable supply level relative to demand.” (Source: Oil Price)
Oil slump highlights anxiety over weak emerging markets in 2019 (24 October 2018): By ALEX LONGLEY AND JAVIER BLAS - LONDON and RIYADH (Bloomberg) -- Just weeks after oil traders were touting $100/bbl, those predictions now seem a distant memory. Oil is trading more than $10/bbl lower than it was earlier this month, when it reached a four-year high. More Saudi and Russian crude, higher-than-expected Iranian exports and a sharp drop in gasoline refinery margins are playing a part in the sell-off. Lurking in the background is a much bigger threat: the possibility of the global economy heading into trouble in 2019, curtailing oil demand growth. (Source: World Oil)
Saudi Arabia has no intention of repeating 1973 oil embargo, minister says (22 Oct 2018): Jennifer Gnana - Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, does not plan to impose an oil embargo similar to the 1973 event and is concerned about limited spare oil capacity to cope with disruptions, the country's oil minister said. “There is no intention,” Khalid Al Falih told Russia’s state-backed TASS news agency, when asked about a repetition of the 1973 oil embargo. Saudi Arabia along with fellow members of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries used oil as a political tool against countries supportive of Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War by restricting supply of crude, a move that caused oil prices to spike. Concerns over Saudi-led Opec employing a similar strategy rattled the oil markets over the past weeks following the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul this month, particularly as the US mulled sanctions against Riyadh over questions associated with his disappearance. (Source: The National (UAE))
Industry Perspectives: New downstream project announcements surge 43% over the past year: Nichols, Lee, Hydrocarbon Processing Staff - According to the Hydrocarbon Processing Construction Boxscore Database, more than 320 new downstream capital projects have been announced over the past year. This total represents a 43% increase in new project announcements year over year. Since September 2017, new project announcements have averaged nearly 25/mos. Most of these new projects (80%) are within the gas processing/LNG and petrochemical industries.
Is Saudi Arabia About To Enter The Arctic Gas Game? (18 Oct 2018): By Tim Daiss - Now that global oil markets have gotten used to Saudi-Russian oil production cooperation that first hit the scene in early 2017 in an effort to reign in global price concerns, it now appears that the two fledgling allies are also going to cooperate in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. And this time too, it looks as if the alliance could take aim at U.S. energy ambitions. (Source: Oil Price)
U.S. Oil Production May Jump To 14 Million Bpd By 2020 (17 Oct 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - U.S. oil production may rise to as much as 14 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) by 2020, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke told Fox Business on Wednesday. “Today we are the largest oil and gas producer on the face of the planet, rolling through 11.2 million bpd, on our way to 14,” Secretary Zinke said. There are some hurdles, we have to get the infrastructure, but the production side of it is well within the capability of going to 14 million bpd, he added. (Source: Oil Price)
200 Dead In Nigeria Oil Pipeline Blast (16 Oct 2018): By Irina Slav - The number of casualties after an oil product pipeline explosion in Nigeria has reached 200, local media report, as people from local communities have gathered to protest the negligence of the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation, which, they said, was the reason for the explosion. The pipeline exploded after it caught fire near the Aba Depot last week. NNPC at the time blamed the explosion on oil theft, which is still rampant in the Niger Delta despite many attempts by the government to put an end to the dangerous practice. The cause of the fire, the company said, could have been oil thieves trying to divert some of the fuel flowing along the pipeline from Port Harcourt to Aba. (Source: Oil Price)
The IPCC is currently in its Sixth Assessment cycle. During this cycle, the Panel will produce three Special Reports, a Methodology Report on national greenhouse gas inventories and the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
The 43rd Session of the IPCC held in April 2016 agreed that the AR6 Synthesis Report would be finalized in 2022 in time for the first UNFCCC global stocktake when countries will review progress towards their goal of keeping global warming to well below 2 °C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C. The three Working Group contributions to AR6 will be finalized in 2021. (more about ...)