Kurt Cobb

Latest articles from Kurt

• The Dark Side Of The Digital Revolution In Energy

  Published 08 July 2019 | viewed 4,440 times

  The U.S. Senate passed a bill last week that would form a government-industry working group to "examine ways to replace automated systems with low-tech redundancies, like manual…

• Shale Industry Has Destroyed 80% Of Its Value Since 2008

  Published 04 July 2019 | viewed 12,536 times

  Recently, the former CEO of the largest shale gas producer in the United States told a roomful of conference goers what any competent financial analysis would…

• IEA: CO2 Levels Hit Another Record High

  Published 27 May 2019 | viewed 8,840 times

  When the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported in late March that energy consumption in 2018 rose at the fastest rate in a decade, it confirmed…

• The World’s Most Unorthodox Oil Nation

  Published 15 April 2019 | viewed 8,706 times

  In what seemed like an episode of the Norwegian television drama Occupied, Norway's largest political party joined smaller ones in the nation's parliament to prevent oil…

• Can Anything Slow Down U.S. LNG?

  Published 07 February 2019 | viewed 18,668 times

  It is the legally mandated purpose of a for-profit corporation to make money for its owners and to prioritize that goal above all else. So,…

• Is The Permian Bull Run Coming To An End?

  Published 28 January 2019 | viewed 31,620 times

  The bad news coming out of the shale oil fields of America could all be put down to slumping oil prices. That is certainly a…

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

  Published 01 November 2018 | viewed 15,444 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 18,368 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 98,496 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 13,583 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 17,049 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 6,508 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 12,035 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 26,003 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 27,290 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 12,545 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 10,443 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 27,427 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 53,981 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 19,261 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…