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Deal could be sealed in coming days, though it is still possible there won’t be one ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Exxon Mobil is closing in on a deal to buy Pioneer Natural Resources PXD a blockbuster takeover that could be worth roughly $60 billion and reshape the U.S. oil industry. A deal could be sealed as soon as in the coming days, though it is still possible there won’t be one, people familiar with the matter said. After posting a record profit in 2022, Exxon has been flush with cash and exploring options that would push it deeper into West Texas shale. An...

Like much of Europe, New England is transforming its electric grid, retiring coal, oil and nuclear plants, leaving it largely dependent on natural gas...Just over half of the electricity produced in New England comes from gas, which is largely imported through a network of pipelines that were largely laid down decades ago. The remaining balance of gas is imported...from overseas...While New England’s electricity is less carbon-intensive than much of the country’s... residents also pay some of the highest rates in the country...thanks to opposition both in New England itself and in neighboring states, especially New York, to building new pipelines....

U.S. crude oil production could reach a new high next year, according to the EIA’s latest STEO–and it could upset OPEC’s reign over the oil market. .....

It was just last June when we asked if “ESG will trigger energy hyperinflation“, explaining that the progressives’ ESG agenda, “is unwinding the shale oil revolution. As recent events at Exxon and Shell have shown, the pressure on oil companies to reduce oil and gas exploration and adapt their business models has increased significantly over the past few months” (incidentally the answer to our rhetorical question was “yes”). We added that “ESG is a negative supply shock that internalizes the climate cost of the production of goods and services. This negative supply shock will be inflationary until technological progress absorbs...

Higher oil prices and capital expenditure discipline are setting the stage for the highest free cash flow on record for the world’s exploration and production companies this year. And U.S. shale firms—set to generate $60 billion free cash flow—are primed for playing a key role in the record-breaking free cash flow from global upstream operations. The U.S. shale patch is expected to be the biggest beneficiary of capex discipline and high oil prices, as well as the largest contributor to the highest-ever free cash flows from the upstream business globally, independent research firm Rystad Energy said in a new report.$70...

The United States shale industry’s era of “newfound prudence” could be coming to an end. After a devastating 2020 for U.S. oil, the mood in the shale sector has been historically reserved, with drillers focused on balancing their books and getting into the black before overextending with new exploration. This is out of the ordinary for the sector, as the boom and bust cycle of oil markets has long been an accepted and unavoidable part of the oil industry. “The oil industry is predictably cyclical: When oil prices climb, producers race to drill — until the world is swimming in...

China is caught up in a very delicate balance. Beijing is being forced to walk a very fine line to keep up with growing energy demand while also shoring up the country’s energy security, and all without compromising the entire world’s ability to decarbonize quickly enough to avoid catastrophic climate change. So far, it looks like Beijing is struggling--if not outright failing--to pull it off. Despite the blow that China received as the first country to struggle with the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country achieved the amazing superlative of being the one and only major economy to achieve even a...

Joe Biden has made it clear that he was for fracking before he was against it. Forget the cognitive testing – the cognitive dissidence of the incoherent policies his puppet masters are feeding him through his earpiece is enough to disqualify him for the presidency and may doom him politically in key states like Pennsylvania just as Hillary Clinton’s pledge to bankrupt a lot of coal companies did. Banning fossil fuels and killing the energy independence Trump achieved before the Wuhan virus pandemic would kill the American economy and future hopes for recovery. It is said a little child shall...

Joe Biden has made it clear that he was for fracking before he was against it. Forget the cognitive testing — the cognitive dissonance of the incoherent policies his puppet masters are feeding him though his earpiece is enough to disqualify him for the presidency and may doom him politically in key states like Pennsylvania just as Hillary Clinton's pledge to bankrupt a lot of coal companies doomed her. Banning fossil fuels and killing the energy independence Trump achieved before the Wuhan virus pandemic would kill the American economy and future hopes for recovery. It is said a little child...

After having crashed nearly 70 percent in the first three months of 2020, benchmark WTI prices are trying to form a bottom around $20 per barrel. But this psychological threshold is looking increasingly shaky as global crude storage facilities are filling up at an unprecedented pace. OPEC and its partners officially ended their output cut deal today, following the words of Russian Energy Minister Novak that every producer is ‘’free to pump at will’’.

After having crashed nearly 70 percent in the first three months of 2020, benchmark WTI prices are trying to form a bottom around $20 per barrel. But this psychological threshold is looking increasingly shaky as global crude storage facilities are filling up at an unprecedented pace. OPEC and its partners officially ended their output cut deal today, following the words of Russian Energy Minister Novak that every producer is ‘’free to pump at will’’. With a flood of physical crude set to hit the market, it will take weeks, not months, for global oil storage space to run out. The...

As markets brace for yet another week of total liquidation (even gold fell below $1500), oil drillers are preparing for the worst. Last time crude traded this low, back in 2016, U.S. oil firms entered survival mode, slashing costs, cutting jobs and optimizing drilling processes. But this time, there’s not a whole lot left to cut. The 2014-2016 oil price crash happened gradually, over the course of several months. 2020’s crash happened in just a few weeks and could end up being a lot more destructive. IHS Markit expects the ‘largest-ever oil glut’ to be between two and four times...

Recently Senator Bernie Sanders acknowledged that he had been briefed by U.S. intelligence on Russia’s attempts to interfere in U.S. elections on his behalf. SNIP I am not a political pundit, so I won’t attempt to speculate on who Moscow would prefer as the U.S. president. But there is at least one area in which the Russians would love to see Sanders’s policies implemented. On energy policy, there are two things that Sanders has promised that would make the Russians (and OPEC) very happy. Fracking Boosted American Energy Independence The combination of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling has led...

After three years of apocalyptic wailing and gnashing of environmentalist teeth over President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the job and economy killing Paris Climate Accord, it is ironic that the one country that faces the brunt of criticism from climate change zealots such as Greta Thunberg is leading the world and the European Union in lowering emissions and promoting cleaner energy, such as natural gas, all the while not hurting the economy: Despite shrieks of terror from the left about how President Donald Trump’s presidency threatens the existence of Earth and thus mankind, the fact is that under his...

Crude oil production in North Dakota could peak over the next five years as producers will have drilled up the core production areas and will have to move to less prolific corners of the oil patch, North Dakota’s Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms told state lawmakers.

Nothing quite tickles the fancy of energy investors like a giant oil or gas find. But here’s the secret sauce: stocks of small-cap companies tend to enjoy serious leverage whenever they strike oil, whereas the heavyweights, well, not so much. You don’t have to look very far for an example: shares of ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM) are down more than 20% since the company announced a 14-strong string of good discoveries off the coast of Guyana in 2015, one of its best finds ever. That’s because companies like Exxon have their fingers in too many pies, and their share prices depend...

This is what the bears don’t get about oil stocks: These are no longer the reckless, wasteful, binge years of the shale boom. The smart companies have adapted to a new reality. close [x] Pause Unmute Remaining Time -1:33 Fullscreen Now, it’s about dramatic new offshore discoveries that are being brought online in record speed. It’s about brilliant new well-completion designs that enhance productivity. It’s about integrated giants who win, either way. It’s about extremely ambitious small-caps that slip into new venues and scoop up massive basins when no one’s looking. It’s about ingenuity on multiple levels that translates into...

The slowdown in the Permian production growth is likely to be just temporary, and the U.S. shale boom is unlikely to end soon, the new U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dan Brouillette, told Bloomberg in an interview on Tuesday. U.S. oil production will continue to grow, despite the slowdown which is already evident across the shale patch, Brouillette said.

The shale-oil tsunami that has flooded New Mexico with a wave of petro dollars in recent years may be receding somewhat as U.S. production faces its first significant decline since the gushers began nearly eight years ago. Signs of trouble are showing up in major basins around the country, with a significant drop in drilling rig activity and sluggish growth this year compared with the spectacular bursts of production in recent years that has transformed the U.S. into the world’s No. 1 oil producer.

Crude oil production in the U.S. shale patch is seen rising by 49,000 bpd next month to a record-high daily average of 9.133 million barrels. That’s according to the latest edition of the Energy Information Administration’s Drilling Productivity Report. A month earlier, the EIA estimated that total shale oil production will rise by 58,000 bpd in November from October, to 8.971 million bpd. The latest report, however, pegged the November average at more than that: 9.048 million barrels daily.