Industry Trends ///
Over the long-term, the impacts of behavioral shifts due to COVID-19 are minor compared to “known” long-term shifts such as decreasing car ownership, growing fuel efficiencies and a trend towards electric vehicles, whose impact is estimated to be three-to-nine times higher than the pandemic’s by 2050.
The publisher of Petroleum Economist, the leading global information service for the full hydrocarbon value chain, is bringing the same analytical depth and rigorous editorial standards to two rapidly-evolving sectors, the energy transition and the emerging hydrogen economy.
“Opening the shale revolution to the world through the export ban lifting helped shift the global oil market psychology from supply scarcity to abundance,” said Karim Fawaz, director of research and analysis for energy at IHS Markit. “It unshackled the U.S. industry to keep growing past its domestic refining limitations.”
“I really don’t see much increase in the Permian basin or the U.S. shale over the next several years,” said Scott Sheffield, chief executive officer of Pioneer Natural Resources Co.
The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. closed out 2020 at 267, according to Baker Hughes Co. data released December 30th. It’s the lowest end-of-year figure since 2005, when drilling and fracking breakthroughs perfected in natural gas regions like North Texas’s Barnett shale were just beginning to be deployed.
A coronavirus-fueled trading scandal is driving stricter borrowing rules and accountability standards, dramatically changing key players in the world's oil supply trade.
“Demand is clearly going to be lower for longer than expected” when the virus emerged in the spring, the agency said in a report, trimming forecasts for world fuel consumption following a new wave of lockdowns. “The market remains fragile,” it warned.
Steady output from their mines means that oil sands producers are able to keep revenue coming for decades without too much investment, while the short life span of shale wells forces U.S. explorers to constantly burn cash just to keep up production.
With the Paris Agreement's decarbonization plans suddenly not ambitious enough for the West, key Middle East producers see an opportunity, and are putting serious money down to cover their bets.
The past few weeks for oil have been more than a realignment of supply and demand -- huge financial flows are also driving the price rally. In a world that’s expecting to see travel recover sharply next year, crude has become a hot Covid-vaccine trade.
Brazil’s surge in oil demand is a welcome development for a global market that’s been forced to push back expectations for when energy demand might get back to pre-virus levels.
America’s oilfield services and equipment sector employment rose slightly for a third month, adding an estimated 2,665 jobs in November, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and analysis by the Petroleum Equipment & Services Association.
“We’ve been able to remain very steady as others have had to change strategy, change dividend, change financial priorities,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said. “For us it’s been a pretty simple promise of higher returns, lower carbon and you can count on us.”
“The peak of consumption may have already passed,” Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev said in an interview in Moscow. “The risk is rising in the longer term” that hydrocarbon revenues could come in below the current outlook, he said.
The UAE’s multi-billion-dollar investments to grow oil market share plays into a wider shift in the dynamic between Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over who in the region holds sway on the international stage.
Discussions have focused on a gradual relaxation of output cuts over several months, and according to one delegate there could be a one-month delay before the tapering starts.
Petrobras CEO Roberto Castello Branco's stance more or less echoes those of U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, which have emission reduction plans but have been outspoken about their focus on crude.
The 23-nation coalition is debating whether to maintain the output cuts at current levels, deferring the increase scheduled for January. Some members are concerned that global markets remain too fragile to absorb additional barrels -- particularly after Libya’s output soared -- while others are keen to sell more crude.
The proposed tie-up of S&P with IHS Markit, a research firm with more than 5,000 analysts, data scientists, financial experts and industry specialists, is part of a race for scale as the industry’s largest players try to capitalize on surging demand for data and analytics in increasingly computerized financial markets.
“In the future, certainly we believe OPEC will be the swing producer — really, totally in control of oil prices,” Bill Thomas, CEO of EOG Resources, the biggest independent shale producer by market value, said earlier this month. “We don’t want to put OPEC in a situation where they feel threatened, like we’re taking market share while they’re propping up oil prices.”