Category: Shale Oil and Gas
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Thursday, December 10, 2020
The Death Of U.S. Shale Has Been Greatly Exaggerated / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
The current year marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. shale boom, a period in which fracking technology across such states as Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wyoming helped establish the nation as a top oil and gas producer.
Unfortunately, high costs of production compared with conventional drilling has led to the sector consistently printing red ink and resulted in considerable destruction of shareholder value. The Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent oil price crash has led to investors souring on the industry further, credit becoming harder to come by, and a cross-section of Wall Street calling the end to the sector.
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Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Why Shale Oil Not Viable at $45WTI Anymore, OPEC Can Dictate Price Again / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: Andrew_Butter
Why Shale was once Viable at $45WTI but it’s not anymore. That’s why OPEC can dictate the price again.
- Some shale operators now say they can’t make money at $55; so they are cutting-back. But in 2017 when WTI averaged $50; output-growth was 60% higher than today. How come?
- In 2015, five-hundred frac-spreads, bought and paid for; some from profits, many at fire-sale; were idle; so day-rates plunged; and so, helped by multi-pads and cheap sand, shale re-booted.
- In June 2019 all those spreads were working. But now, for shale to continue to grow, more are needed. Except at $55 operators can’t pay the pumpers the day-rates they need to buy new.
- CAT is crying and Halliburton is stacking; holding-out for better rates. Rig count has plunged; there’s no point drilling if you can’t find a cheap frac-spread to complete.
- Now OPEC & Co can push the price up to $75 WTI without fear of sparking a third boom. But they may make the mistake they made in 2015; trying to kill-off shale. If they do, they will fail.
Over the past year the penny that shale-oil output growth was going down, not up, finally dropped for most commentators (1-to-7). Although EIA, IEA, OPEC and Rystad Energy are all sticking with their predictions for a 900,000 bpd or so build in shale production in 2020 (8-to-10). They say the slump in growth which started in June 2018, was because of pipeline constraints in Permian (11). But those were fixed in December 2018, yet output-growth kept going down.
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Thursday, October 25, 2018
U.S. Shale Oil Has A Glaring Problem / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
Oil prices are down a bit, but are still close to multi-year highs. That should leave the shale industry flush with cash. However, a long list of U.S. shale companies are still struggling to turn a profit.
A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and the Sightline Institute detail the "alarming volumes of red ink" within the shale industry.
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Friday, February 02, 2018
Can The Shale Oil Boom Avoid These Bottlenecks? / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
Shale companies continue to drill at a frenzied pace, adding rigs and breaking U.S. oil production levels with each passing week. Yet, the oil production is becoming increasingly geographically concentrated. Not only is the Permian basin accounting for much of the new oil production in the U.S., but a relatively small number of counties within the Permian are home to most of that action.
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Wednesday, July 05, 2017
Few People Grasp What Geopolitical Power Shale Oil Gives To The US / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: John_Mauldin
I know no one else with George Friedman’s breadth and depth of insight into today’s world.
Right at the root of today’s major global issues, we find one little word: oil. So, I’ve asked George to bring us up to speed on the geopolitical implications of a remarkable phenomenon: the US shale oil industry.
There is good news here for the US, but big bad news for Saudi Arabia and Russia—and in fact any country with oil exports as its main source of income.
But without further ado, I’ll let George and his team enlighten you on this development themselves.
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Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Shale Oil & Gas Production Costs Spiral Higher As Monstrous Decline Rates Eat Into Cash Flows / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: Steve_St_Angelo
If you believe the recent surge in U.S. oil production suggests that good times are here once more, think again. While the U.S. oil industry continues to increase production by adding a great deal more drilling rigs, there is serious trouble taking place in the shale patch that very few are aware. This has to do with the rapid deterioration of oil and gas economics as horrendous decline rates eat into company cash flows.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
CONTINENTAL RESOURCES: Example Of What Is Horribly Wrong With The U.S. Shale Oil Industry / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: Steve_St_Angelo
According to Continental Resources website, it labels itself as America’s oil champion. To be a champion, one is supposed to be winner. Unfortunately for Continental, it’s taking a serious beating and is a perfect example of what is horribly wrong with the U.S. Shale Oil Industry.
During the beginning of the U.S. shale energy revolution, the industry stated it would make the United States energy independent. The mainstream media picked up this positive theme and ran with it. Americans who wanted to believe in this “Growth forever” notion, had no problem going further into debt to buy as much crap as they could to fill their homes and additional rental storage units.
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Thursday, December 22, 2016
U.S. Shale Oil Cash Flow Is Now Neutral / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
Oil prices are probably already high enough to spark a rebound in shale production.
The IEA says that in the third quarter of 2016, the U.S. shale industry became cash flow neutral for the first time ever. That isn’t a typo. For years, the drilling boom was done with a lot of debt, and the revenues earned from steadily higher levels of output were not enough to cover the cost of drilling, even when oil prices traded above $100 per barrel in the go-go drilling days between 2011 and 2014. Even when U.S. oil production hit a peak at 9.7 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2015, the industry did not break even. Indeed, shale companies were coming off of one of their worst quarters in terms of cash flow in recent history.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2016
U.S. Oil Shale Faces A Reality Check / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
The collapse of oil prices has forced the U.S. shale industry to slash production costs. In order to improve the “breakeven” costs for the average shale well, the industry has deployed three general strategies: improving techniques and technology, such as drilling longer laterals or using more frac sand; focusing drilling on the sweet spots; and demanding lower prices from oilfield service companies. All three of those strategies led to a decline in the breakeven price for a shale wells.
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Wednesday, December 09, 2015
The Science Behind Shale Oil Investments that Pay Off Big Time / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: The_Energy_Report
As Matt Badiali, geologist and editor of the Stansberry Resource Report, explains, it has only been in the last few decades have we learned to release the potential of the massive oil and gas reservoirs in the U.S. Now we are learning how to tell if a shale project will be profitable. In this Energy Report article, he shares three names he is watching closely.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Day Of Reckoning For U.S. Shale Oil Will Have To Wait / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
October has been billed as a pivotal month in which indebted shale companies would see their credit lines cut, precipitating a faster consolidation in the industry that would sow the seeds of a rebound.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 17, 2015
The Shale Oil Delusion: Why The Party's Over For U.S. Tight Oil / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
The party is over for tight oil.
Despite brash statements by U.S. producers and misleading analysis by Raymond James, low oil prices are killing tight oil companies.
Reports this week from IEA and EIA paint a bleak picture for oil prices as the world production surplus continues.
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Friday, August 21, 2015
The Oil Bubble...Which Just Bust...Was Caused by Derivatives: That’s why Shale Oil is finished / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: Andrew_Butter
There are plenty of reasons put-forward for why oil prices more than halved over the past year. But no one’s talking about a bubble that bust; seems like the world is wallowing in denial. Likely because if indeed it was a bubble (that just bust), it’s going to be a LONG TIME before anyone sees $100 again, and just about everybody has exposure to that scenario.
”I Blame it on the Saudi’s...BOMB THEM” says Donald Trump, well actually he didn’t say that; but that’s the sort of stupid remark you’d expect from a Republican Party Presidential front-runner.
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Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The Dark Side Of The Shale Oil Bust / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
The fallout of the collapse in oil prices has a lot of side effects apart from the decline of rig counts and oil flows.Oil production in North Dakota has exploded over the last five years, from negligible levels before 2010 to well over a million barrels per day, making North Dakota the second largest oil producing state in the country.
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Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Can Argentina Capitalize On Its Vast Shale Oil Reserves? / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
Argentina, once a regional energy leader, is now better known for financial busts and bombastic politicians than hydrocarbons prospects. Still, with a resource potential both vast and untapped, the nation has never been far from energy investors' minds. The question today is just how much Argentina is willing to change and how this plays into a low oil price environment that is already negatively impacting investment elsewhere. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 19, 2015
How Many Shale Oil Plays Make Money At $37 Per Barrel? / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: James_Quinn
I’m tossing you a softball. Now think carefully. The choices are:
A. Zero
B. Zero
C. Zero
D. Zero
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Thursday, September 04, 2014
George Soros Signals Argentina’s Shale Oil and Gas is Biggest Place to Be / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
One of the world’s legendary investors is upping his bet on Argentina’s shale oil and gas industry in a show of confidence for shale production in South America’s largest unconventional prize —and a big boost for both supermajors and smaller players making big waves in the heart of new discovery areas.
George Soros has doubled his stake in YPF SA, the state-owned oil company in Argentina, which sits atop some of the world’s largest shale oil and gas resources, and is about to get even larger following a new discovery over the last couple of weeks of a second key shale play.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Shale, the Last Oil and Gas Train / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: OilPrice_Com
How much faith can we put in our ability to decipher all the numbers out there telling us the US is closing in on its cornering of the global oil market? There's another side to the story of the relentless US shale boom, one that says that some of the numbers are misunderstood, while others are simply preposterous. The truth of the matter is that the industry has to make such a big deal out of shale because it's all that's left. There are some good things happening behind the fairy tale numbers, though--it's just a matter of deciphering them from a sober perspective.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Has Shale Oil Broken OPEC's Grip? Oil Stocks Powerhouses of the Future / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: The_Energy_Report
The Shale Age is the age of the nimble junior, and exploration has revealed oil and gas resources that could forever alter the global production profile. Peter Dupont, oil and gas analyst for Edison Investment Research, tells The Energy Report how companies in North and South America, Australia, Africa and the U.K. are upending the oil and gas order and creating a whole new energy investment landscape.
The Energy Report: The price of Brent is holding steady above $100/barrel ($100/bbl) while West Texas Intermediate's (WTI) price is slipping back into the $90s. How are these prices and the spread between them affecting exploration and production of oil and gas?
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Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Shale Gas Fantasy and Profit When the Bubble Bursts / Commodities / Shale Oil and Gas
By: The_Energy_Report
The numbers don't lie—but politicians and industry bigwigs do. While pundits still wax poetic about an era of American energy independence, Bill Powers, author of the book "Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth," sees productivity plummeting in almost every major shale play. In this interview with The Energy Report, Powers tells us to forget about LNG exports and a manufacturing boom and get positioned for a bust. How? Invest in energy equities. Powers names his favorites for maximum returns when the bubble bursts.