OIlprice.com's Energy section focuses on all energy related topics that can't be easily classified in our other categories. Topics covered are fossil fuel energy, solar energy, wind energy and many other types of energy sources.
The extreme volatility that struck the oil markets in late August and early September have calmed a bit – but just a bit. Oil fell on September 11, following the latest data from the EIA and IEA (more on that below). WTI was down on the market opening, The EIA’s weekly data showed a surprise uptick in oil inventories, the second consecutive week of gains. Crude stocks jumped by 2.6 million barrels. After around three months of slow but steady drawdowns in inventories since the beginning of May, crude stocks have been largely unchanged (despite week-to-week movements) since the beginning…
The crude complex is charging lower into the weekend despite some bullish signals from the monthly IEA Oil Market Report (some might say today’s drop is in relation to a certain research piece, but we’ll side-step that).Yesterday we took a look at some of the key themes in the latest EIA Short Term Energy Outlook, one of which was its expectation that non-OPEC production would be flat next year, as falling US production offset growth from elsewhere (EIA projects that production will drop from averaging 9.2 million barrels per day this year to 8.8 mn bpd in 2016). Related: With China…
The Saudis are on track to sacrifice ~$100 billion in crude export revenues in 2015, or 45 percent of 2014’s ~$219 billion in crude export revenues, in pursuit of market share, the measure of success Saudi Oil Minister Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi announced at the November 27, 2014 OPEC meeting. What do the Saudis plan as their encore in 2016? Will they continue pursuing market share over other goals (e.g., total revenue, economic diversification, OPEC conciliation), or will they alter course, and if so, is there a superior alternative? Publicly, Saudi officials appear unwavering in support of market share. The…
By now, the whole world knows that Russia has been trying to pivot towards China in the wake of the U.S. and EU sanctions that specifically targeted the Russian oil and gas industry. On September 3, 2015, during a meeting of Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China’s CNPC and Russia’s Gazprom signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a third project that will be developed in the next five years. Although this seems to be a win- win situation for both nations, one has to consider the fact that there have been several delays in most…
Not only is today a glorious day for Arnold Palmer as he celebrates his 86th birthday, but it is also a red letter day for us here in Energyland™ – for September 10th marks the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. As the ‘flame’ graphic illustrates below, we are pretty much assured of having a named storm in the Atlantic on this day based on history:Accordingly, Tropical Storm Henri has appeared in the Atlantic to ensure we have our named storm. (As an aside, there be treasure, me hearties, in Sierre Leone, with ‘X’ marking the spot): Related: More Iranian Oil…
A lot of people, including several OPEC members, thought the oil slump would be easing by now. Instead, as oil prices languish near multi-year lows and experience unprecedented volatility, it’s now unclear how long it will take oil prices to recover. Indeed, OPEC now appears poised to wait out the period of low prices even if that takes months or even a couple of years. The fact of the matter is that despite the calls of Venezuela and Algeria, Saudi Arabia and other major OPEC members don’t seem too concerned about the current low prices. Venezuela in particular has been calling…
Amid a holiday-dappled week, we barrel in to Wednesday without the presence of the weekly oil inventory report; we will have to wait until tomorrow at 11am (EDT) for that. We do, however, get the API report after market close, although the EIA’s Short Term Energy Outlook is out in the meantime to provide us with something to get our teeth into. Economic data again remains scant, with the only morsel of note already released from the UK in the form of a big miss for industrial production (-0.4% MoM vs. +0.1% expected). Despite a rampant rise in global equity…
For being so critical to modern life, computer data centers spew a lot of hot air – more precisely a lot of waste heat. Energy is a major operating cost for data centers; therefore, wasting so much of it may seem foolish. Data centers use energy to the power the infrastructure, run the computer equipment (e.g. servers), and cool the space. With the exception of large data center operators such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc. energy efficiency often slides down the industry’s list of priorities. Data center professionals are extremely conservative and changes to traditional operations are perceived as very…
The British government said over the weekend that it would support airstrikes in Syria, targeting Islamic State militants. And the French government has made similar statements. Despite the noteworthy headlines, the international coalition confronting IS has already targeted the group in Iraq, and without new military commitments, the announcement does not appear to amount to a significant strategy shift. However, due to the outcries over the swelling refugee crisis, in which growing numbers of refugees are arriving on European shores, the governments of Western Europe are scrambling to respond. Many European governments have announced plans to take in more refugees,…
As the US returns to work after a long weekend, it is under the influence of various overnight releases from Europe and Asia. Brent crude is rallying strongly after seeing downside yesterday, while WTI is still playing catch-up and selling off towards mid-forty dollardom. At first blush a revision to Japanese GDP for Q2 was better than previously expected (-0.3% QoQ, -1.2% YoY), but it turns out this was due to swelling inventory rather than anything constructive. Meanwhile, further Chinese woes came in the form of its trade balance, as its trade surplus came in close to record highs as…
