Oil At $50 To $80 Better Than At $100

lweb.es/f1393 9.08.2016

iconOEF REVIEW:Crude could return to $100 a barrel because the two-year market downturn has curbed investment. Except during the financial crisis in 2008, average Brent prices increased every year from 2002 to 2012, and topped $100 a barrel from 2011 to 2014 and leading companies into higher-costs projects and capacity building that outstripped demand leading eventually to a collapse in prices.

China Has Problem With Zombie Firms

lweb.es/f1391 9.08.2016

iconOne of the structural flaws driving China’s instability is the existance of a investment situation where profits of state-owned enterprises, known as SOEs, are largely privatised to SOE personnel and losses of SOEs are socialised on to the state budget. This is the cause of the large amount of excess capacity in China’s heavy industries today, and also of the serious non-performing loan problem in state-owned banks. The growing presence of “zombie” firms coincides with the downward trend in the growth of productivity. The social pain resulting from necessary economic adjustments will have to be addressed.

China Could Militarize South China Sea

lweb.es/f1389 9.08.2016

iconOEF REVIEW:Civilian planes landed on Subi reef and Mischief reef for the first time on July 12th giving China three operational runways in the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. A military transport plane visited Fiery Cross Reef earlier this year but there is no evidence that Beijing has deployed military aircraft to these outposts. The reefs can easily accommodate any fighter-jet in the People’s Liberation Army Air Force or Naval Aviation.

Rigs: Longest Oilfield Expansion Since 2014

lweb.es/f1387 9.08.2016

iconOEF REVIEW: Mid-August saw the longest period of rig expansion since the final days of the drilling boom in early 2014, according to World Oil, marking the longest period of oilfield expansion since April of that year when drillers added oil rigs nine weeks in a row, reported Baker Hughes Inc. Prompted by an oil price recovery from a 12-year low in February, producers have begun returning parked rigs to service after idling more than 1,000 rigs since the start of last year. The long-term decline in drilling expansion has led to a slowdown in production. Crude output fell by 15,000 barrels per day to 8.45 million barrels per day during the week ended August 5th. “I think it’s just a matter of time before we come into balance,” Paul Crovo, a Philadelphia-based oil and equity analyst at PNC Capital Advisors said. “We think the fundamentals will take care of themselves as we come into the third quarter and later into the fourth quarter and early 2017.”

World Tight Oil Production Output To Double By 2040

lweb.es/f1385 9.08.2016

iconOEF REVIEW:According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) world tight oil production is expected to more than double between 2015 and 2040, increasing from 4.98 million barrels per day in 2015 to 10.36 million barrels per day in 2040. Most of the projected increase will come from the United States, with much of the rest coming from countries such as Russia, Canada, and Argentina. U.S. tight oil production is expected to reach 7.1 million barrels per day in 2040. Tight oil production in Canada will continue to decline until 2020, and then increase over the rest of the projection period, reaching 0.76 million barrels per day in 2040. Argentina is still in the early stages of commercial tight oil production, but projections are that production will double from 2015 to 2020 and will reach 0.69 million b/d in 2040. Russia, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, and other countries that hold large technically recoverable tight oil resources are expected to contribute 18% of the projected total world tight oil production by 2040.