• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 30 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 9 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 6 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 22 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 5 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Nick Cunningham

Nick Cunningham

Nick Cunningham is an independent journalist, covering oil and gas, energy and environmental policy, and international politics. He is based in Portland, Oregon. 

More Info

Premium Content

Contraction In U.S. Shale Pushes Oil To $40

Crude oil prices have rallied by more than 30 percent since early February and investors are growing more confident that a rebound is in order. Have oil prices finally turned a corner?

The sudden wave of cautious optimism surrounding the direction of oil prices can be boiled down to the decline in U.S. oil production, a trend that is starting to pick up pace. While U.S. oil producers managed to stave off significant production declines in 2015, drillers are finally starting to capitulate with oil prices in the mid-$30s per barrel and below.

The effects are starting to show up in the data. The EIA reported weekly estimates showing that U.S. production has now dropped below 9.1 million barrels per day (mb/d). That is a departure from the past few months – the U.S. saw little to no decline in output in the fourth quarter, as weekly figures pointed to a resilient rate of production that hovered between 9.1 and 9.2 mb/d. That trend continued into the early part of 2016 even though prices crashed below $30 per barrel. Related: Oil Continues To Rally As Short-Covering Continues

However, by the end of January, the EIA believes that U.S. oil production finally started to see output fall. Between January and the end of February, the U.S. lost over 150,000 barrels per day in production. The EIA’s weekly figures are not as accurate as their retrospective monthly estimates, but since the monthly figures are published with several months of a lag, it could be a few more months before we get a more accurate picture of how fast output is falling.

The rig count also continues to fall, suggesting that production declines are more or less locked in for the next few months at least. The oil rig count dropped below 400 for the week ending on March 4. Drilling activity has ground to a halt, and with capital budgets stretched or broken, the industry won’t be able to bring enough new sources of supply online to offset mounting legacy production.

The announcements from U.S. shale companies back up the data emerging from the EIA. In recent weeks more than a dozen U.S. shale companies announced that they expected their production to decline in 2016, a list that continues to grow. For example, Continental Resources, an iconic driller in the Bakken, has pretty much given up on completing wells in North Dakota this year. The company’s output could fall by 10 percent this year as a result. More and more companies are following suit. Related: What A Falling Rig Count Can Do For Oil Prices

Taken together, it appears as if the market is finally starting to balance, even if the process may protracted and painful for E&P companies. Growing optimism about the direction has pushed oil prices up by 30 percent in less than a month. WTI jumped above $36 per barrel on March 7, the highest price since early January. Brent is closing in on $40 per barrel.

Oil speculators are becoming more bullish on oil prices. Hedge funds are rapidly liquidating their short bets, as fears of sub-$20 oil have all but vanished for now. According to data from the CFTC, net-short positions fell by 15 percent for the week ending on March 1. "We might see the real bottom being behind us," Ed Morse, head of global commodity research at Citigroup Inc., said on Bloomberg TV on March 4.

In addition, although a lot of questions remain, OPEC representatives are planning on meeting with Russia’s energy minister between March 20 and April 1 to follow up on their production “freeze” agreement. An outright cut to production remains a long-shot, especially since Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi all but ruled it out at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston in late February. It is hard to imagine OPEC and Russia shifting course from the production freeze, but any agreement to take additional action represents an upside risk to oil prices. Related: Big Oil Eyes Upcoming Auction In Iran

Given the mounting evidence, it seems that the oil price rally is finally here, then? Maybe. But it is also possible that bullish sentiment is starting to outstrip the fundamentals, even if the fundamentals are trending in the right direction. U.S. production declines are still proceeding modestly, a pace that is not quick enough to soak up the 1.5 mb/d or so of excess supply anytime soon.

Moreover, oil storage levels are still rising in the United States, hitting a new record last week of 518 million barrels. Until inventories are drawn down substantially, oil prices will run into a ceiling every time they try to rally.

The worst of the oil bust may be over, and oil prices dropping to $20 per barrel seems increasingly unlikely. But with prices up more than 30 percent in just a few weeks and the world still suffering from oversupply, is there really any more room for price gains in the short-term?

ADVERTISEMENT

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Nathan on March 08 2016 said:
    I don't think the worst is oil. Iran is still ramping up and there is a war on market share. The only thing that will come out of this is more pumping as evidenced by Kuwait's recent statement. I would think the 1300+ rigs that have shut down have a bigger impact than fracking being shut down. None of the fundamentals have currently changed, oil will continue around $30 and it will be back there fairly soon.
  • avenger 426 on March 08 2016 said:
    Oil will continue to rise during the run into the summer months as the yearly run up rip off continues. Gas will be 2.50 a gallon as the colluding, price gouging and price fixing gas dealers screw the consumer. Oil will drop back back in the fall.
    Typical oil company behavior.

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News