The Daily Digger

            Climate change has been an ongoing topic in the past years and one of the main topics covered during the presidential campaign by then-presidential candidate Joe Biden. He had  threatened to remove  all fracking sites to reduce carbon emissions to zero. Of course, towards the end of the presidential campaign, Joe Biden became less hostile towards the fracking industry and devised a more reasonable way of reducing carbon emission.      On Monday, at least 10 chief executives from major U.S. oil companies (Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc, ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Chevron Corp, and Devon Energy Corp) have decided to collaborate with the Biden administration in its campaign against climate change. White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy has stated that oil industry leaders promised support for federal regulations. The main focus being limiting emissions of methane from wells and other oilfield equipm...

             Despite the increase in U.S. oil demand, big shale producers are focusing on their debt over drilling. They are keeping true to what they've told their investors by cutting costs throughout the whole industry. Contrary to publicly owned shale companies,  privately-owned  shale producers are now focusing on increasing their productivity, as we mentioned in a previous post.       This is good news for OPEC+, as this will restrain output and drive crude prices higher without unleashing a barrage of supply from U.S. rivals. The U.S. shale industry is slowly coming back, but this new approach will leave oil output below pre-pandemic levels until late next year. Michael Tran, managing director for RBC Capital Markets, stated that publicly traded explorers that remain restrained on output are aiding to keep crude prices up.  Michael Tran also said, "the more restrained shale drillers are this year, the more...

            Without a doubt, the shale industry has boosted job creations throughout the US. When the industry began to boom back in 2012, it created  1.8 million jobs . At the start of the fracking boom, workers were paid an average of $35.15 per hour, which was higher than the general economy's wages.      Experts even estimated that the shale industry would bring in $111 billion in federal and state government revenues in 2020. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 and the  extreme cold weather  that affected major shale sites only a few weeks ago, the industry has taken a toll. Despite the oil and gas market steadily getting back on its feet, the negative effects are still being seen. Shale Workforce Cut      Major fracking companies and the companies that manufacture the equipment have had to cut down on personnel over the past months. An estimated 12,321 jobs cut over the past three month...

  As already discussed in  previous posts , the U.S. shale industry is finally gaining its strength back after months of decline. To much surprise, this resurgence is largely due to privately owned shale drillers and not the other giant corporations. This has worried OPEC as it will affect their overall market shares in the oil business.  How are these privately owned corporations usurping the U.S. oil market share from OPEC? That is what we will discuss today, but first, let's look at what OPEC is.  OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries The OPEC was established on 14 September 1960 and has continued to play a significant role in influencing the global oil prices. Currently, 13 countries are members of the OPEC, all of which have substantial oil reserves. Their  mission statement  is: " to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets, to secure an efficient, economical and...