Bullish on oil demand, OPEC says current price slide 'temporary'
With speculation swirling over possible production freeze talks, OPEC on August 8 appeared to throw cold water on the idea, sounding an optimistic tone about the oil market.
Southern California natural gas inventories nearly flat this injection season
(Tue, 09 Aug 2016) During the summer, when storage operators are typically injecting natural gas into storage facilities to build up inventories before the winter months, natural gas inventories in Southern California have remained nearly flat. Underground natural gas storage wells at the Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) Aliso Canyon facility, by far the largest storage field in the region, are undergoing testing, following a leak that was detected in late October 2015 and stopped in February 2016.
Short-Term Energy Outlook - Market Prices and Uncertainty Report
(Tue, 09 Aug 2016) Crude oil prices broke below $45/b and out of of a two-month-long trading range in July. The front-month Brent crude oil price decreased $6.06 per barrel (b) since July 1, settling at $44.29/b on August 4 (Figure 1). The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price settled at $41.93/b, declining $7.06/b over the same time.
US EIA chief shares short-term outlook for oil market
Episode 100 of the S&P Global Platts Capitol Crude podcast, featuring EIA chief Adam Sieminski, aims to demystify the complex world of US oil policy.
Back to basics: Adam Sieminski on global oil prices, fundamentals and more
In the 100th episode of Capitol Crude, Platts senior editor Brian Scheid talks with Adam Sieminski, administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, on the state of the global oil market.
High natural gas-fired generation leads to rare summer net national weekly storage draw
(Mon, 08 Aug 2016) Working natural gas storage inventories posted a rare summer net withdrawal of 6 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending July 29, 2016, according to EIA's Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. Record-high consumption of natural gas for electric power generation drove this withdrawal. Although withdrawals in the summer are not unprecedented, and happen regularly in the South Central storage region, the last time a net withdrawal in July occurred on a national basis was in summer 2006.
Petchems a bright spot in an otherwise arduous earnings season
Petrochemicals are offering growth as energy companies struggle with lingering low crude prices, though there are some setbacks.
What is the human cost of restructuring China’s steel industry?
Little attention has been given to what the number of people expected to be laid off says about staffing levels in the China’s steel industry.
Levelized Cost and Levelized Avoided Cost of New Generation Resources in the Annual Energy Outlook 2016
(Fri, 05 Aug 2016) This paper presents average values of levelized costs for generating technologies entering service in 2018, 2022, and 2040 as represented in the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) for the <em>Annual Energy Outlook 2016</em> (AEO2016) Reference case.
Oil and natural gas production jobs in May were 26% lower than in October 2014
(Fri, 05 Aug 2016) Despite increases in crude oil prices since the start of the year, employment in oil and natural gas extraction and support activities continued declining from levels reached in the fall of 2014, just before the onset of falling oil prices. The total rig count (including both oil-directed and natural gas-directed rigs) has declined even more sharply, from nearly 1,800 rigs in the fall of 2014 to a weekly low of 404 rigs in May 2016.