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Commodity Equity Business Unit Leader in EMEA at Goldman Sachs on Arctic Oil Exploration

“Overall the idea that we have to go into the Arctic to find new resources I think has been dispelled by the enormous cheap, easier to produce and quicker time-to-market resources in the Permian onshore US. We think there is almost no rationale for Arctic exploration. Immensely complex, expensive projects like the Arctic we think can move too high on the cost curve to be economically doable.”

Michele Della Vigna, commodity equity business unit leader in EMEA at Goldman Sachs

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Peak Oil Review – 27 Mar 2017

Last week oil prices fell for the third time in a month, closing in New York at just below $48 a barrel. Increasing US crude inventories remain the chief motivation for the price drop as many traders now see higher US production as largely offsetting the OPEC/NOPEC production cuts. OPEC and its allies met in Kuwait last week to consider the situation and to talk about extending the cuts until the end of the year. In the meantime, the US rig count continues to grow amid some doubts as to whether all the new drilling will result in a concomitant amount of production.

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Peak Oil Review – 20 Mar 2017

After a quick drop of $3-4 a barrel the week before last, oil prices steadied last week as the markets contemplated just how effective the OPEC/NOPEC production freeze will be in the short term. Speculators had enthusiastically embraced the production freeze when it was announced late last year and drove open interest in futures to record highs. The cuts, however, did not come fast enough or be deep enough to offset increasing oil production from other countries and lower demand. As one important trader put it, “The OPEC cuts were good enough to prevent a repeat of the glut of last year, but it’s a different story if you want to have oil at $60 or $70.” For now, the physical oil market continues to indicate an oversupply situation.

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Quotes from CERAWeek

“I want the states to see the EPA as a friend, as a partner, and not an adversary. Regulators ought not to use their authority to pick winners and losers.”

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt

U.S. crude oil output “could go pretty high. But it’s going to have to be done in a measured way, or else we kill the market.”

Harold Hamm, CEO Continental Resources

“As an industry, we’re not investing enough for supply growth to keep up with demand growth.” Decreased spending, particularly in the resource-rich (but expensive) offshore, may cause supply to plateau or decline as global demand is rising, Hess said. A supply deficit is possible as soon as three years, and within five, when the reductions in capital investments should begin to show up in falling offshore supply, Hess said. “We’re not investing enough to keep the offshore investment pipeline full.”

John Hess, CEO Hess oil

“People might have drilled [the Eagle Ford} up very fast in the last two to three years, and they had to because they were measured on multiples of growth and had to grow very quickly. They probably regret it because they learned so much more about how to complete these wells more efficiently today than even what we knew two or three years ago.”

Ryan Lance, CEO ConocoPhillips

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Peak Oil Review – 13 Mar 2017

Last week was the most active in many months as oil prices, widely believed to be stuck in a narrow trading range for the foreseeable future, plunged some 8 percent in the last three days of trading. The price decline was triggered by an unexpected build of 8.2 million barrels in US crude stocks along with growing concern about increases in the US oil rig count. The week was highlighted by the annual “CERAWeek” conference in Houston which was attended by oil ministers and CEOs of oil companies from around the world. Many took advantage of the meeting to express opinions or issue warnings about where the global oil industry was headed.

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Peak Oil Review – 6 Mar 2017

On Thursday last week NY oil prices fell to near the bottom of the $52.50-$54.50 trading range they have been stuck in since early January. On Friday a falling dollar pushed prices higher to close at $53.33 in New York and $55.22 in London. There was much discussion last week about the status of OPEC’s production cuts and how they were being achieved. Much of the cut seems to be coming from the Saudis whose production was down by 90,000 b/d during February to 9.78 million. Overall OPEC production, however, only fell by 65,000 b/d during February. Ecuador, Venezuela, Angola, the UAE, and Iraq are still well below their targets under the production cut agreement. The Saudis finished February with a production cut of 157 percent of their target which was enough to bring all of OPEC close to its goal. The non-OPEC exporters participating in the cuts seemed to have implemented around 66 percent of their targeted cut.

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