James is the Editor of Econbrowser – a popular economics blog that Analyses current economic conditions and policy.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday: OPEC said its members agreed that they need to cut crude output to reduce the world’s supply glut,…
The price of crude oil has had some sharp swings over the last month. But the trend since January has clearly been up. (Click to…
Here I review key trends in the oil market over the last decade. (Click to enlarge)World field production of crude oil, in thousands of barrels…
Many analysts had anticipated that a dramatic drop in oil prices such as we’ve seen since the summer of 2014 could provide a big stimulus…
Horizontal fracturing of tight hydrocarbon-bearing formations was responsible for a phenomenal resurgence in U.S. oil production, which rose more than 4 million barrels per day…
Today I discuss the factors that brought oil prices so far down and more recently back up. World oil production was essentially stagnant for seven…
The global economy is slipping into recession. The evidence is showing up in all the usual ways: slowing output growth, slumping purchasing-manager indexes, widening credit…
According to the Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Energy Review database, world field production of crude oil in September was up 1.5 million barrels a day…
World field production of crude oil increased 2.9 million barrels a day in the 12 months ended last July. That compares with a 3.6 mb/d…
U.S. gasoline prices averaged $3.31 a gallon over December 2013 to February 2014 but only $2.31 a gallon over December 2014 to February 2015. How…
Could the price of oil be a value such that the current quantity produced exceeds the current quantity consumed? The answer is yes, and indeed…
How important would an economic downturn in China be for the United States?Paul Krugman reviews some of the reasons why the United States perhaps shouldn’t…
U.S. oil production has begun to drop in response to low oil prices, but not as dramatically as many had anticipated. Oil companies have cut…
U.S. retail gasoline prices last week averaged over $2.80 a gallon, thirty cents higher than a month ago. The preliminary University of Michigan index of…
On Friday I visited the University of Alberta in Edmonton, where falling oil prices have brought a record provincial budget deficit despite aggressive tax increases…
The EIA released a new drilling productivity report last week, allowing us to update our graph of the drilling rig count in the four major…
The EIA is now reporting that U.S. field production of crude oil averaged almost 8.7 million barrels a day in 2014. That’s up 1.2 mb/d…
The price of oil passed another milestone last week, falling below $50 a barrel, a level that I had not expected to see again in…
A few weeks ago I offered some calculations suggesting that lower demand for oil might account for about $20/barrel of the dramatic decline in the…
The spectacular drop in oil prices means that inflation is going to fall even further below the Fed’s 2% target. Does that raise any new…