Big Oil Goes CleanTech Earlier this month, French Oil Major TOTAL announced an agreement to tender for 60% of SunPower (SPWRA), one of the leading solar module manufacturers and distributor/project developers, at a 43% premium to the previous market close. TOT is not new to the non-hydrocarbon energy market, having acquired some thin film …
Traditionally, the gasoline inventory build ahead of the US driving season, concurrent with the “seasonal trade” for refiners, leads to a price peak within a week or two of Memorial Day. This year, while the Q1 run-up is not that unusual, it follows a dramatic rise during 2010, and, perhaps for the first time, reflects …
Secular Low Nat Gas Prices – The Golden Age of Chemicals Returns to North America It’s been fascinating to watch the consequences of the dramatic dislocation of US natural gas prices with both oil and Rest of World gas prices has made the US one of the lowest cost chemical producer in the world, second …
Global (but Regional) Natural Gas and the Gas-Coal Paradox From recent conversations with leading onshore oil/gas producers, it seems that there is almost no US shale (with favorable seismic data) that cannot be frack-ed to produce hydrocarbons. It’s just a matter of time until, in the face of a mature services, pipeline, and processing …
Crude and Product Price Rally Overdone? The seasonally unusual spikes in crude and gasoline accompanied more bullish views of global economic fundamentals, despite shorter term year-end and other inventory effects (some of which have reversed in January). As well, along with gold, energy prices probably participated in the ongoing ‘QE2’ trade. However, January data …
Global Natural Gas – Interesting Trends have investment implications A by-product of very weak US natural gas prices, cheap chemical feedstocks, is taking hold as the US is probably the second lowest cost producer of commodity chemicals in the world, next to the Middle East. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s decade long quest for natural gas …
OPEC at 50 In September, OPEC celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding meeting, in Baghdad, in 1960. That was a different world: Much of OPEC volume was at the order of international partners (Exxon, etc) in key resources in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, etc, who also set a ‘posting price,’ for the product. A …
It’s hard to focus on the fundamental energy environment, whether conventional or renewable, without continued consideration of the Macondo explosion and massive oil spill. I’m going to try, since so much else is ongoing, but, first…. Macondo Comment du Jour Just as noted in the last Issue, the estimated flow rate from the wellbore continues …
Geopolitics Comes to the US Gulf of Mexico If oil geopolitics are defined as the regional effects of politics on global oil/energy fundamentals (or security), perhaps the most important geopolitical events of the past six months have not been in the Middle East, or Korea, but the US Gulf of Mexico, where the most energy …
(After a brief hiatus, mostly tied to ‘Macondo-Fatigue,’ we’re back, with more observations on the broad energy scene. I thought I’d open with a review and update of the initial outlook from the first issue, in March. ) My view of oil supply fundamentals is largely unchanged from Issue 1 – a hole in the …