Oil Price Crisis News

With the recovery in oil prices, deepwater and ultradeep water oil and gas (O&G) projects are the focus of renewed interest. Project viability will come down to a continued focus on cost, but also productivity through high-performing assets. And electrification is set to drive a dramatic impact of these high-tech production facilities for more efficient operations.Following a prolonged downturn in prices, a flicker of life has returned to offshore production projects with oil recovering to around $70/barrel.

USD 100 per barrel oil  is but a “pipe dream,” Wells Fargo said in a new investor note, reports MarketWatch. The report quoted Wells Fargo’s John LaForge saying that he’s doesn’t expect oil prices to climb anywhere near $100 a barrel over the next few years. Barrels price will bounce between $30 and $60 in the coming years, according to top bank’s diagnosis. “We continue to hear that big cutbacks are on the cusp of happening,” he said. “The evidence, however, implies otherwise. Shale production has caused American output to stand higher than it did in 2014, before the oil price crisis began. Wells Fargo data shows current production at 15.5 million barrels per day, compared to 14 million bpd three years ago.

As crude oil prices reach Gulf War highs and recent memories of historic low crude prices fade, capital spending on finding and developing new oil reserves continue to play catch up. "The recent oil-price crisis set back non-OPEC output growth for at least a year," a recent report released by Deutsche Banc Alex. Analysts say there is a lag time for exploration spending to play catch up with oil prices - for every one month when crude prices are below the cost of production, it takes three months of high prices to regain the volume of production lost during the low cost period. Crude prices began to rebound from lows near $10 a barrel when OPEC and other major producers cut crude production to raise prices in March 1999.

The cyclical nature of the offshore exploration and production beast is legendary in financial circles, riding boom and bust waves for years at a time. While industry analysts and insiders alike had forecast a pick-up in activity no sooner than mid-year 2000, the collective industry is “itching” to get back to the business of building, repairing and supplying the myriad of rigs, boats and other business opportunities that abound in a full-blown boom oil market. Patience, it seems, is wearing thin, particularly in the face of dwindling business prospects and the lingering of the $30+ barrel of oil. While it seems all too natural that sustained high prices would sooner than later drive a resurgence of the moribund offshore business…