Shale ///
The Appalachia region, home to the Marcellus shale faces pipeline bottlenecks in the years to come, a problem only made worse by the decision by Dominion Energy and Duke Energy to abandon plans to construct what would have been a major conduit to fast-growing markets that lie to the south.
When a judge delivered a surprise ruling this week ordering the pipeline to shut until further environmental reviews are conducted, Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren flashed the pugnacious, bare-knuckled approach that has made him -- and the project -- a source of seemingly never-ending controversy in America.
World Oil editors discuss the near- and longer-term effects of the Dakota Access pipeline shutdown on U.S. shale, legal precedents being set and who stands to benefit. Also, Pemex appears to be tightening its grip around the neck of the golden goose that is Mexico's oil and gas industry.
The shale industry is getting at least $2.4 billion in loans from the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program aimed at helping businesses that are struggling with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The looming shutdown of the Dakota Access pipeline that carries more than a third of the region’s oil to market threatens to keep the play from booming ever again.
Covia Holdings Corp., a supplier of sand and other mineral products to the oil and gas industry, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court in the Southern District of Texas on Monday.
The company will bring back output in Alaska and other states next month, with Canadian production coming back in the third quarter. “Given ongoing variability and uncertainty in the outlook for production curtailments, the company will continue to suspend forward-looking guidance and sensitivities,” Conoco said in a statement Tuesday.
More than 200 North American oil and gas producers, owing over $130 billion in debt, have filed for bankruptcy since the beginning of 2015, according to a May report from law firm Haynes & Boone. This year alone, at least 20 have gone under after oil prices plunged amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chesapeake Energy Corporation announced that the company has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to facilitate a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring.
World Oil editors review the Dallas Fed's recent oil production survey among U.S. operators and service companies, and discover a "split personality" between production estimate and pricing models that could lead to an oil supply shock in 2021.
A recent survey by the Dallas office of the Federal Reserve System reveals a very somber and wary mindset by U.S. producers toward the upstream oil and gas (O&G) market. And that attitude is reflected in their plans for coping with the Covid-19-affected O&G market.
Occidental Petroleum has garnered around $3 billion of orders for its inaugural high-yield bond sale, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Occidental has been under pressure ever since outbidding Chevron to win the purchase of Anadarko Petroleum last year. The deal saddled Oxy with some $40 billion of debt that was looking hard to pay off even before Covid-19 reduced global oil demand.
According to EIA research, increases in drilling efficiency pushed U.S. crude oil and natural gas production to establish new records of 12.2 MMbpd and 111.5 Bcfd, respectively, in 2019.
Kurt and Cameron discuss a key element of Australia's LNG ambitions up for grabs, OPEC+ compliance driving buyers to U.S. crude, Deloitte projects a challenging earnings season for shale, and New Mexico's state budget feels the sting of low oil prices.
More than a third of shale explorers polled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas say they’ll restart most of their idled output by the end of this month, ending production curtailments made during the crash in oil prices earlier this year.
Looking out 18 months, U.S. output will still be around 16% below its peak in February, according to an average of surveys from the IEA, Genscape, Enervus, Rystad and IHS Markit. It will probably be at least 2023 before the U.S. again hits its record close to 13 million barrels a day.
Almost a third of U.S. shale producers are technically insolvent with crude at $35 a barrel, according to Deloitte LLP, highlighting the industry’s acute financial strain even as oil prices rebound from a record low earlier this year.
Just months ago, New Mexico, the third-biggest producer of U.S. oil, approved the state’s largest budget ever, paid for by an oil boom that made up 40% of the state’s revenues in 2019. Now that plan has been slashed by more than $600 million, affecting everything from pay raises for state workers to a program designed to provide free community college to state residents.
Refiners in the top crude-importing region have been forced to accept big reductions in their regular contracted volumes from producers including Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the past couple of months. They’ve also been taken aback by sharp swings in official selling prices.