Commentary A Long Recovery for Natural Gas Price
A Long Recovery for Natural Gas Price Revisiting the Haynesville Shale By Arthur Berman (column appears in this month’s World Oil magazine; used with author’s permission; he will be speaking at this fall’s ASPO-USA Conference, on October 12) Natural gas prices increased 39 percent from a 6 ½ -year low of $3.19/MMBtu on April 27 to $4.42 on May 13, 2009. Some think that the worst
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Briefs
The Middle East’s LNG capacity will rise to 100 million tons a year by 2015 from the current 20 million tons a year according to Khalid Sultan al Kuwari, marketing executive at Qatar’s RasGas. (5/28, #8) Saudi Arabia raised its oil production by nearly 300,000 b/d in March 2009 in spite of a collective agreement by OPEC to cut crude supplies to support
Quote of the Week
“The quickest and easiest way to reduce our carbon footprint is through energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit that is lying on the ground.” Dr. Stephen Chu, US Secretary of Energy
Brazil
Last week Brazil’s energy minister announced that international companies will be invited to bid for concessions in the pre-salt deep-water oil fields as early as next year. Brazil stopped selling concessions in the area soon after the size and importance of the discovery was recognized in 2007. Under a production-sharing system, the Brazilian government would own the oil but pay oil companies
The Rebound
For many months now the major question perplexing the world’s policymakers, and nearly everybody else, is just when some type of economic rebound will begin and what such a rebound might look like. While opinions range from the “next quarter” to many years, few seem to take the issue of slowing global oil production into account. Some see slowing rates of economic decline in recent
Production and Prices
Oil prices surged to a six-month high above $66 a barrel last week, despite protests from most observers that fundamentals of supply and demand did not support such a move. A combination of factors was behind the sudden rise. Most important was the fall of the US dollar to a recent low of $1.41 against the Euro, sending traders into commodities for protection. An unexpectedly large drop in the US crude
