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It wasn’t that long ago, 19 years to be precise, when the average oil price was $11.91 per barrel (WTI). Are world conditions such that we could see that price again? Everyone said that oil prices would never fall into the $20 range, but 14 months ago oil prices hit a 14-year low of $26.21 per barrel on February 11, 2016. Are we, or better yet, can we really be looking at the same world conditions that drove those 1998 oil prices down to record lows that almost equaled the 158-year average annual oil price of $11.22 per barrel (WTI)?...

While Saudi Arabia’s economy is currently suffering from an 18-month decline in oil prices and soaring unemployment rates, they are planning for a future in which they won’t have to worry about the price of oil at all. Speaking of the plans outlined in Vision 2030, Saudi finance minister Mohammed Al Jadaan told CNN, "We will not really care much whether the price is 40, 45, 50, 55 at that time because we have gone significantly out of our way to be independent of the oil price...We are planning to totally [end] that dependency that we have been living for...

OPEC and its cartel of friends must be sweating condensates in advance of their May 25th meeting. The oil price war, triggered almost three years ago, is far from over. Calling a truce with production cuts has been an ineffective strategy. In fact, it’s been a feeble strategy and nobody in the business should rely on its extension to be effective. Price wars are often triggered by the arrival of a new entrant into an entrenched market clique. American light tight oil began flowing into petroleum supply chains in 2010. By 2014, output from plays like the Bakken, Eagle Ford...

Oil prices dropped on Thursday to their lowest level since last November, with Brent breaking below $50, amid concerns of rising global supply and still high inventories. At 11:22am EDT, WTI Crude was trading down 2.82 percent at $46.47, while Brent was down 2.62 percent at $49.46 -- with both WTI and Brent having effectively wiped out all the price gains since OPEC announced on 30 November 2016 the output cut deal aimed at reducing oversupply and propping up prices. On Wednesday, a day after the American Petroleum Institute (API) injected a bit of optimism among traders by reporting a...

The 2020s could be a “decade of disorder” for the oil markets as the lack of drilling today leads to a shortfall of supply. Demand will continue to grow, year after year, and shale will not be able to keep up. It may be hard to envision today, with an oil market suffering from low prices and a glut of supply. Falling breakeven prices have drillers still churning out huge volumes of shale oil, with production in the U.S. already rebounding and rising on a weekly basis. The tidal wave of shale, however, is the direct result of extreme market...

Recession-struck Venezuela will send a new proposal to OPEC and non-OPEC producers to try to stabilize crude oil prices, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday. “Venezuela, as of next week, will circulate a letter with a new proposal, a new formula for the stability of real and just prices so that it can be studied and debated by all the governments that have signed this deal,” the president said in a speech, without providing details, as quoted by Reuters. Venezuela was one of the most vehement supporters and promoters of OPEC’s supply-cut deal, in which OPEC and 11 non-cartel...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil climbed further on Tuesday as a militant threat to Nigerian oil exports and Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions kept the market worried about supply disruptions. London Brent crude for March was up 27 cents to $63.45 a barrel by 0329 GMT, after rising 58 cents on Monday. U.S. light crude for February jumped 86 cents to $64.78 in catch-up gains after being closed for a national holiday on Monday. U.S. crude earlier touched $64.95 a barrel, its highest since October 4. Crude flows from Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, are being...

A militant group has however since February 2016 been making headlines through their capacity to destroy oil infrastructure. Their attacks have driven Nigeria’s oil output to near a 22-year low. Contrary to popular opinion, the group, Niger Delta Avengers, NDA for short, according to them is not just made up of Niger Deltans but has support from other parts of Nigeria, namely Northern, Western and Eastern part of the Country with the sole purpose of crippling the Nigerian Economy until their demands are met. According to reports, Diplomats and security experts say the group has shown a level of sophistication...

Speaking at a campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in September, President Obama touted his economic record with these lines: “More Americans are working. More have health insurance. Incomes are rising. Poverty is falling. And gas is $2 a gallon.” First of all, the economic numbers he's bragging about are absolute smoke and mirrors. In November, Bernie Sanders told a crowd that Obama might be touting an unemployment rate of 5% or less, but that he could only claim that number when part-time jobs were counted the same as full-time jobs. According to Sanders, the real unemployment rate is over 9%....

With the deal now done, we seem to be witnessing history in the making. But remember: history always repeats itself. When two agreements were signed in the early 2000s, both collapsed due to the inability of OPEC members to adhere to their commitments. Hence, the chance of the deal dying an early death is all too real. One of the factors that will bridle prices in the near future is the rate at which global stockpiles will deplete. My previous article explored the different factors that may spur U.S. Shale production. On the 10th of December, OPEC successfully convinced the...

Oil prices surged more than 8 percent on Wednesday as OPEC shocked the world and reached an agreement to cut production. If OPEC members succeed in implementing the deal, set to take effect in January, it could erase the global surplus in an instant. “The sentiment generally is optimistic and positive," Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih said before the final meeting on Wednesday. “Any production-restraint agreement has to be distributed in an equitable way. We are getting close.” Oil prices skyrocketed on his comments and on the news that a deal was within reach. Still, there was a lot...

Defying all odds, OPEC provisionally reached the much-hyped agreement to cut output in a bid to boost oil prices. According to an OPEC delegate quoted by Bloomberg News, the ministerial meeting in Vienna has just reached a deal to cut output by 1.2 million barrels per day to 32.5 million barrels per day. But there’s a catch. According to a ZeroHedge tweet, it looks like the OPEC deal would be conditional on a subsequent deal with non-OPEC producers in December to agree on a 600,000-bpd cut. If this is indeed the case, the oil production cut saga and drama will...

Some OPEC members are saying OPEC will do whatever it takes to make all members join the production cut agreement that’s been chewed over since late September—willing or unwilling. According to a statement by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, “There is sufficient will among OPEC countries to take the step we need to take in the month of November, (to reach) a forceful agreement to reduce production and construct new mechanisms to stabilize the market.” Maduro was speaking in a televised broadcast, following his meeting with OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo in Venezuela. Barkindo, for his part, was quoted by media as...

U.S. crude oil storage is filling up with unaccounted-for oil. There is a lot more oil in storage than the amount that can be accounted for by domestic production and imports. That’s a big problem since oil prices move up or down based on the U.S. crude oil storage report. Oil stocks in inventory represent surplus supply. Increasing or decreasing inventory levels generally push prices lower or higher because they indicate trends toward longer term over-supply or under-supply.

Oil barrel prices could climb between US$7 and US$10 by the end of the first half of 2017, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. Yesterday, OPEC surprised nearly everyone and reached a deal to curtail oil production. And now, if all members of OPEC strictly comply with their new quotas, which are to be (and that’s a reasonable “if”) agreed upon at the November meeting of the organization, Goldman is predicting a sizable recovery for the price of a barrel of oil. For this scenario to take place, all other circumstances on oil markets must remain unchanged.

According to a Reuters source, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has in fact reached a deal that will “limit” oil production, and oil prices are in for a wild ride yet again as a result. What was reported as mere rumor this morning, is apparently now a certainty. Reuters had reported this morning that OPEC may announce an output freeze deal later today, as part of the informal talks on the matter on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum, but details of the deal would be withheld until November.

In mid-January, everyone's favorite market indicator Dennis Gartman, made an infamous prediction when oil was trading in the mid-$30s, when he said that oil won't hit $44 again "in my lifetime" Sure enough, three months later, oil "killed" Gartman, or at least his credibility, when it jumped above $44. We thought that Gartman had learned his lesson, and would avoid such bombastic forecasts in the future. Turns out we were wrong, and earlier today Gartman again appeared on CNBC, where he said that "investors shouldn't expect the commodity to break through $55 for a few years."

Oil prices have surged more than 20 percent in the last two weeks but there is quite a bit of disagreement over whether or not the rally can continue. The spark that created the bull market was the decision from OPEC to hold an unscheduled meeting in Algiers in September to discuss a production freeze. On the one hand, it would seem odd that OPEC members would once again go through all the motions and trouble of holding another meeting without a high degree of confidence that this time will be different. On the other hand, it has been years...

t’s a tough business right now for oil and gas companies, with some companies faring better than others with most majors releasing in-the-red second quarter financials, but business mogul T. Boone Pickens has made a bold and heavy return to the energy market, upping his stake in energy holdings by more than a third in the second quarter, according to data tallied by Bloomberg. The value of BP Capital Fund Advisors LLC’s energy stock holdings increased by $55 million to $218 million. BP Capital Fund Advisors added stakes to eight energy-related companies at a time when oil prices were painstakingly...

The Kingdom is struggling with weak GDP growth, higher fees and taxes, and an economy that is unable to pay the dues to its workers, leaving thousands of workers from South Asia with an uncertain future. When a nation is unable to provide food to its migrant workers, it says a lot about their financial condition. The oil price crash has forced the oil-rich Kingdom to introduce austerity measures, and delay payments to already cash-strapped contractors.