Kurt Cobb

Latest articles from Kurt

• Can U.S. Shale Overcome Its Cash Flow Problem?

  Published 01 November 2018 | viewed 9,009 times

  I'm tempted to say the following to the writers of two recent pieces (here and here) outlining the continuing negative free cash flow of companies fracking for…

• Was The Aramco IPO Destined To Fail?

  Published 01 August 2018 | viewed 16,120 times

  Since late 2016 the financial media has been abuzz about what would likely be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) ever: The sale of 5…

• Is The Oil Industry Repeating A Critical Error

  Published 14 July 2018 | viewed 94,176 times

  Ten years ago this week—July 11, 2008 to be exact—the price of a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit an intraday high…

• The Harsh Reality Of A Global Energy Transition

  Published 19 March 2018 | viewed 12,642 times

  I recently asked a group gathered to hear me speak what percentage of the world's energy is provided by these six renewable sources: solar, wind,…

• The Truth About U.S. Energy Dominance

  Published 05 March 2018 | viewed 14,773 times

  Much of the media coverage of the American energy industry implies that America has become a vast and growing exporter of energy to the rest…

• Justifying Blockchain’s Energy Usage

  Published 22 January 2018 | viewed 5,959 times

  The near vertical rise and fall in price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in recent months has been accompanied by reporting about the energy used to run…

• How Vulnerable Is The Electrical Grid?

  Published 07 October 2017 | viewed 10,418 times

  When the electricity stops in modern civilization, pretty much everything else stops. Not even gasoline-powered vehicles can get far before they are obliged to seek…

• Do Saudi Arabia And Russia Really Want Higher Oil Prices?

  Published 02 May 2017 | viewed 23,959 times

  The jawboning of oil prices by the Saudi Arabian/Russian tag team should be wearing off after more than a year of actions that don't measure…

• Saudi Arabia’s War On Shale Never Ended

  Published 13 March 2017 | viewed 25,653 times

  Last week, when Saudi Arabia let it leak that the kingdom has no intention of leading OPEC toward another cut in production to accommodate the…

• Is The U.S. Becoming Overdependent On Natural Gas?

  Published 04 March 2017 | viewed 12,139 times

  The story sounds familiar. For decades, oil and natural gas drilling have been proceeding and creating prosperity for those involved. At some point, significant earthquakes…

• Australia’s LNG Woes: A Glimpse Into The Future For The U.S.?

  Published 18 February 2017 | viewed 10,054 times

  Two times last winter, Australians living in the country's eastern region paid more than twice as much for natural gas as did Japanese customers taking…

• The Larger Problems Behind The Deepwater Horizon Disaster

  Published 22 October 2016 | viewed 25,512 times

  While watching the recently released film "Deepwater Horizon" about the catastrophic well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that caused the largest oil spill in…

• Saudi Arabia’s Fake Surrender: Why The Oil Price War Is Still On

  Published 10 October 2016 | viewed 53,422 times

  What do you do when everyone is bugging you to do something, but you don't want to do it? The simple answer is that you…

• Is A Meaningful Rebound On The Horizon For U.S. Natural Gas?

  Published 15 August 2016 | viewed 18,705 times

  Cheniere Energy has long been my favorite contrarian indicator in the U.S. natural gas market. For those unfamiliar with the term, a contrarian indicator is…

• The End Of A Trend: Oil Prices And Economic Growth

  Published 03 August 2016 | viewed 26,095 times

  It used to be that when it came to the world economy, oil prices and economic growth were more like distant cousins who disliked each…

• Busting Media Myths On Peak Oil

  Published 23 July 2016 | viewed 25,368 times

  Almost synonymous with the term "peak oil" is M. King Hubbert, perhaps the foremost geophysicist of the 20th century, who first theorized about the eventual…

• Are Energy Markets Responsible For The Brexit?

  Published 02 July 2016 | viewed 6,578 times

  The fretting in the financial markets after Great Britain's voters narrowly decided to leave the European Union (EU), a move dubbed Brexit, was less about…

• How Far From An Electric World Are We?

  Published 13 June 2016 | viewed 9,388 times

  Recently, word leaked out that Norway may ban the sale of diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles by 2025. The move toward electric vehicles is part of…

• Does The U.S. Have A Plan For The Post-Oil Era?

  Published 25 May 2016 | viewed 13,277 times

  The world's largest exporter of crude oil, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, recently announced a plan for its post-oil future. If a country almost synonymous…

• The Systemic Risk Created By Resource Corruption

  Published 16 April 2016 | viewed 4,107 times

  Corruption is a loaded word. One person's corruption is another's sound social policy. Some people believe providing unemployment benefits to laid-off workers corrupts them by…