The oil industry's biggestnames gather this week at CERAWeek, the largest energy industryget-together in the Americas, at a time when U.S. shaleproduction is booming, global demand is rising and crude pricesare at a sweet spot for both big U.S. producers and OPEC. Last year's decision by the Organization of the PetroleumExporting Countries to restrain output has drained the globalglut that occupied much of the conversation at 2017's gathering.With oil prices up about 15 percent [Read more]
Heavy crude discount narrows as market eases into correction
The Canadian heavy oil discount narrowedon Friday against the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark,as the market slowly corrected from its widest level in morethan four years, reached last month.* Expanding oil production in Alberta, coupled with tightpipeline and rail capacity to move it, has increased thediscount since late last year.* The differential, which has historically hovered around$15 per barrel, is more likely to narrow to between $19-$20 in2018, according to Tudor Pickering Holt [Read more]
U.S. drillers add oil rigs for 6th consecutive week
U.S. energy companies added oil rigs for a sixth week in a row as crude prices hovered near three-year highs, prompting more drillers to boost their spending plans for 2018. Drillers added 1 oil rig in the week to March 2, bringing the total count to 800, the highest level since April 2015,General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. That was the first time since June that drillers added rigs for six consecutive weeks. They added [Read more]
Canada’s First Nations seek bigger stakes, profits from oil sector
Canada's First Nationsare boosting investments and leveraging their clout withregulators to gain stakes in oil and gas projects as they seekgreater returns on energy produced or transported across theirterritory.Aboriginal groups in Canada have traditionally played a morepassive role in the energy industry, collecting royalties fromoil and gas output. That model is changing as some indigenousgroups buy oil wells and negotiate ownership stakes in proposedpipelines and storage projects. [Read more]
Heavy crude discount narrows slightly, still above normal
The Canadian heavy oil discount narrowed on Thursday against the West Texas Intermediate benchmark, but the crude continued to trade at a wider discount than normal. Expanding oil production in Alberta, coupled with tight pipeline and rail capacity to move it, has increased the discount since late last year. The discount looks to diminish due to new deals being finalized between oil companies and railways and the start of operations at Alberta's Sturgeon Refinery, Scotiabank analyst [Read more]
U.S. Henry Hub natural gas prices for February down from 2017
U.S. natural gas prices for February at the Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana slipped below levels seen during the same month a year ago as production rose to a record high. That price decline occurred despite near normal temperatures and heating demand in February2018 compared with much warmer than normal weather and low heating demand during the same monthin 2017. Next-day gas prices averaged $2.67 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) in February2018. That compared with $2.82 during [Read more]
Fundamentalists complain about a new generation of commodity speculators
LONDON, March 1 (Reuters) - Traditional commodity traders are lamenting the rise of a new generation of hedge funds who show little interest in the fundamentals of conventional supply and demand analysis. The newcomers are blamed for distorting prices, making markets impossible to trade, and forcing the closure of some long-established specialist commodity funds. The target of this criticism is not always well-specified: it variously includes high-frequency computer-driven traders, [Read more]
Oil to edge higher in 2018 as OPEC cuts help offset U.S. supply growth: Reuters poll
(Reuters) - Oil analysts expect the price of crude to rise steadily this year but remain in a tight band dictated by U.S. shale output growth on one side and OPEC supply restraint on the other, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday. The survey of 37 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude LCOc1 would average $63 a barrel in 2018, slightly higher than $62.37 projected in the previous month’s poll. “OPEC’s level of compliance (with agreed production curbs) and the pace of U.S. shale’s [Read more]
U.S. crude oil production hit all-time record in November: EIA
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil production shattered a 47-year output record in November, and then retreated slightly in December, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, as oil production from shale continued to upend global supply patterns. Oil output rose to 10.057 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, according to revised figures from the EIA. December production fell 108,000 bpd to 9.949 million bpd, the EIA said. November’s output was the highest on record, [Read more]
Chevron board member’s tweet questions oil industry’s future
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A member of Chevron Corp’s board of directors sent a tweet on Wednesday that questions the future of the oil industry given the rise of renewable energy technologies. “If #oil energy consumption is declining and #renewableenergy consumption is on the #rise, what does that mean for the future of the oil industry?” Dambisa Moyo, an economist and author who joined the oil company’s board in 2016, wrote on Twitter. The tweet was accompanied by two graphics produced by the [Read more]