Oil and Gas Industry Looking to Settle Down After Being Shaken by Hurricanes

By -
From Forbes:
The approach of the final quarter of 2017 seems an opportune time to check on the state of the U.S. oil and gas industry, and its outlook for the remainder of the year. While Hurricanes Harvey and Irma definitely caused significant disruptions in the nation's oil and gasoline delivery systems, the reality is that those disruptions will be rapidly resolved and the storms really will not make any lasting impact on the global oil and gas markets. 
This year has been amazingly stable overall, especially when compared with the rampant instability during 2015 and 2016, and the various determining factors would appear to indicate that the industry is in for a good deal more stability ― some would call it stagnation ― for the year's final 100 days. 
Corporate Processes Continue to Prevail 
As I've discussed a couple of times since June, so much of this seeming stability is in fact dictated by the nature of internal budgeting processes, especially within the mid-size-to-large corporate independent producers that dominate drilling markets in the United States. These big producers set their budgets for the second half of the year back in April and May, with an expectation of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices hovering within a range of $44 to $48 per barrel, and a natural gas price of ~$3.00/mmbtu.

Because these dominant companies began executing on those second-half budgets on July 1, the overall rig count initially stagnated for a few weeks, and it has now slowly fallen by ~25 rigs over the last five weeks. A variety of factors have combined to move the crude trading range up slightly, to a range of about $47 to $50/bbl, but that's not enough of an increase to create momentum within these companies to significantly increase their capital budgets for the remainder of the year.
Read the rest of this article by clicking here.

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Popular posts from this blog

Fracktivist in Dimock Releases Carefully Edited Video, Refuses to Release the Rest

By -
Image
From Energy in Depth: There is something very strange going on along Carter Road, in Dimock, Pennsylvania, and I’m not speaking of natural gas, methane migration, contamination, litigation or even the extensive water testing there by the EPA and others.  No, I’m talking about a new “Watergate” conspiracy, complete with 18 minutes of missing tape (well, video, actually). It seems the ever-present Green Party member and  naturist   Vera Scroggins  (a/k/a  Vera Duerga ) has posted a video of Craig Sautner meeting with the EPA.  Mysteriously, the video is but 14 seconds in length, cutting off conversation in what is obviously mid-stream.  It raises a question Craig Sautner, like  Ronald Reagan in Kings Row , might have asked, “Where’s the rest of me?’  Carter Road, isn’t Kings Row, of course, (at least not until you arrive at  the mansion Scott Ely, one of the Dimock litigants, is building with his royalty money ), but there appears to be a whole lot of film editing going on there to fi
Read more

The Second Largest Oil and Gas Merger - Cabot and Cimarex

By -
Image
       Due to investor pressure, the U.S shale drillers are being pushed to improve financial and operational performance after a few years of poor returns. Even though the industry has improved its numbers, when compared to last year, investors still want more to be done for them to earn more money.      That's why two mid-tier shale drillers, Cabot and Climarex, have decided to merge in order to eliminate $100 million in annual costs, which means more money for the investors. This all-stock transaction is valued at about $7.4 billion, which is relatively high for the oil and gas sector.      The new entity will be renamed and the headquarters located in Houston, Texas. Cabot shareholders will own 49.5 percent of the new entity, and Climarex the rest.       The Cimarex-Cabot merger will address the investor's demand for a higher amount of returning cash. The initial plan is to pay a 50-cent-per-share special dividend on closing the deal while offering a quarterly variable div
Read more

Do You Know The History of Fracking?

By -
Image
  In 2018, 59% of total oil production in the U.S came from hydraulic fracking, which means it accounted for more than two-thirds of domestically manufactured gas. By 2024, fracking will reach an astounding $68 billion market value! Of course, fracking is not a new drilling method as you can trace it back hundreds of years. That's why we want to consider the history of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). We will be stating historical facts about it and focusing on the major historical occurrences that have influenced modern-day fracking. Pre-Fracking Days The idea of fracking started back in 1862 when Edward A.L. Roberts (Civil War veteran) witnessed Confederate soldiers exploding artillery rounds into a canal that obstructed a battlefield. At the time, Edward A.L. Roberts called it superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Edward A.L. Roberts began experimenting with exploding torpedoes, which consisted of lowering a torpedo containing an amount of powder from fifteen to tw
Read more