The stock markets are still setting record highs, and the price of crude oil has gone over US$ 60 per barrel. Opinions are divided on whether the surge in oil prices will be sustained or fall back. There are various factors influencing the price like the OPEC agreement to cut back production and the question whether American shale oil production will increase. There are, of course, geopolitical considerations that could lead to developments not entirely positive.
A reluctant Russia is expected to agree with OPEC and other producers to continue to curb global oil production, but the deal may have more caveats than initially expected by the market.
The somewhat rocky road to reaching an agreement by Thursday’s OPEC meeting has also exposed some cracks in the new world order of oil – where Saudi Arabia and Russia use their combined heft to influence prices and global supply. The cause of those "cracks" in the new ‘R-OPEC’ appears to be U.S. shale oil.
Russia is ready to discuss an extension of a global deal between OPEC and other countries to cut oil output in Vienna on November 30, TASS news agency quoted the Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Friday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other major producers cut their combined output by about 1.8 million barrels per day since January to reduce bloated inventories and boost oil prices.
The use of oil in the road transportation sector will increase even as the sale of electric vehicles is expected to rise, according to the annual long-term outlook from OPEC. If a quarter of the world’s cars have batteries, global oil demand would reach a plateau of about 109 million barrels a day during the second half of the 2030s, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its annual World Oil Outlook.
U.S. construction and fracking major Halliburton expects that the worst crude crash in a generation will lead to a spike in oil prices by 2020., according to World Oil.
Tumbling oil prices brought on by a glut of global oil has forced the industry to slash about $2 trillion in investments, according to the world’s biggest fracking provider. The oil industry has lost $2 trillion in investments due to chronically low prices, said Mark Richard senior Vice President for global business development at the World Petroleum Conference in Istanbul on Wednesday.
OPEC is meeting in Vienna to discuss rolling over its six-month deal with 11 other exporters to remove 1.8 million barrels a day from the oil market in order to shrink global crude stockpiles. Consensus has formed in recent weeks around a nine-month extension, along the lines of a plan agreed to last week bySaudi Arabia and Russia.
Most analysts expect the cartel to extend production cuts for another six to nine months following recent statements from major oil players.
During Obama’s presidency, the US energy industry was hit strongly by environmental protection measures. Now, oil and gas industry is expected to surge forward. Do you share this point of view or not? In your opinion, will Trump’s regulations help the US become more energy independent?
At the moment, it is hard to say whether the energy industry is really going to surge forward thanks to Trump’s regulations. Still, with relatively low oil prices, the industry is not going to receive more money regardless of any regulations the President might implement. What I mean is that the government can still make these rules easier for the companies, but it will not change the investment significantly. Overall, the new regulations implementation might be positive, but it is still not a game changer. Furthermore, I suppose that there is no need for the President to relax the environmental regulations because the industry is already capable of meeting higher environmental standards.
