Introduction Occasionally I am deluged with inquiries about a particular news story. That happened this week. As the inquiries mounted, I decided I better address the story. After I saw one more gushing, uncritical report […]
Highlights of the 2015 Annual Energy Outlook
Last week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2015 (AEO2015). The report presents updated projections for U.S. energy markets through 2040 based on six cases, defined as follows: Reference — […]
Crude Prices Surge as the Pieces Fall Into Place
I have been pretty adamant — some may say stubbornly so — about my expectations for crude prices this year. I have argued against the notion that oil prices were going to fall to $20 […]
Why Crude Inventories Surged This Week
While U.S. crude oil inventories have been surging since last fall, I have argued that these inventories should peak off soon. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason is that March is […]
Crude Oil Inventories Should Peak Soon
In my previous column – Is the U.S. Running Out of Crude Oil Storage? – I discussed the tightening crude oil storage picture in the U.S. That column has already generated the highest level of […]
Is the U.S. Running Out of Crude Oil Storage?
Update: See my latest article Crude Oil Inventories Should Peak Soon for an understanding of how important refinery utilization is in this picture. No, despite the popular narrative that we keep hearing, the U.S is not […]
Washington Post: President Obama is Lying About the Keystone Pipeline
I will preface this article with my standard disclaimer on the Keystone XL Pipeline project: I have no vested interest in the pipeline either way. My interest is in fostering honest debate and discussion on […]
Nigeria’s Achilles Heel
I tend to receive one or two guest submissions each week, most of which I pass on for various reasons. Either the submission isn’t topical enough, it has been republished multiple times elsewhere, I already […]
The Growing Risk of Transporting Crude Oil by Rail
By now you have probably heard that a CSX (NYSE: CSX) train carrying Bakken crude from North Dakota’s shale oil fields derailed and caught fire. The oil was bound for a coastal oil shipping depot owned by the […]
Oil Prices: Dead Cat Bounce or Have We Passed the Bottom?
When I made my energy predictions for 2015, I made some very aggressive predictions. Perhaps the most aggressive was that the closing price of West Texas Intermediate would not fall below $40/barrel (bbl) in 2015. […]