"OPEC Is Treading Lightly As Bearish News Mounts" by Irina Slav

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

I wonder if this will keep U.S. gasoline prices higher...  ...

...and Cui Bono... who benefits from this Ukraine-Russia war and the high price of exported goods (oil & gas)?

Cui bono?, in English "to whom is it a benefit?", is a Latin phrase about identifying crime suspects.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/EU-Steps-Up-Purchases-Of-US-Oil.html

EU Steps Up Purchases Of U.S. Oil

By Irina Slav - Apr 26, 2022, 11:00 AM CDT

• EU crude oil imports from the U.S. are ramping up as the EU mulls an import ban on Russian crude.
• Bloomberg: since the start of the year, four supertankers have traveled between the U.S. and Europe, compared with just one a year ago.
• U.S. crude oil and product exports hit an all-time high earlier this month.

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A cargo of 2 million barrels of U.S. crude oil arrived this month in Spain. It is, according to Bloomberg, the biggest U.S. oil cargo to arrive in Europe since at least 2016. But it may be only the beginning.

Bloomberg reported on the arrival of the supertanker this week, noting that normally, European buyers get their U.S. oil on smaller vessels. Yet this may be about to change as the EU, which covers most of Europe, increasingly shuns Russian oil and looks for alternatives.

Like LNG, U.S. oil makes the most sense from a political perspective: the U.S. and the EU have demonstrated a close partnership in their sanction action against Moscow, and the U.S. has signaled it would help the EU weather the boomerang effects of these sanctions.

Citing vessel-tracking data, Bloomberg reported that since the start of the year, four supertankers have traveled between the U.S. and Europe, compared with just one a year ago. The vessel that arrived in Spain this month, however, is the first to do so since the U.S. lifted its ban on oil exports seven years ago.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and the EU are privately discussing how the EU could approach its reduction of Russian oil imports, according to another Bloomberg report. In the event of such reduction through an oil embargo, which is being discussed in Europe right now, oil prices are going to rise further, and neither the U.S. nor the EU want higher prices.

This has made the issue sticky for the partners, with little chance of a quick or easy resolution of the problem. Yet, the U.S. will also be among those benefiting from an EU oil embargo by raising its oil exports to the EU.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil and product exports hit an all-time high earlier this month, reaching 10.6 million bpd as buyers seek alternatives to Russian oil and derivatives.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

• EU In Talks With Alternative Suppliers As It Considers A Russian Oil Ban
• Libya May Reach Full Oil Production Within Days
• Can Lebanon Repair Its Failing Energy Sector?

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

...and Cui Bono... who benefits from this Ukraine-Russia war and the high price of exported goods (oil & gas)?

Ooops.  I'm sorry...that is a 3-D Chess question, and with the current narrative (which contains censorship on opposing narratives in the western world), we only play 2-D chess.  Sorry...my mistake for asking a relevant question.  Now I remember, we are in the middle of The "Switch Off Putin" Campaign and I need to get my blinders back on and trust all Mainstream Media and Government sources.

https://community.oilprice.com/topic/29558-the-switch-off-putin-campaign-an-immediate-european-wide-boycott-of-all-russian-oil-and-gas-imports-by-james-corbett-orthe-greatest-trick-of-all/

And here is a little bit about CHESS from James Corbett...

2D Chess is for Losers

...There's nothing more satisfying than a good guy/bad guy narrative. We have so internalized this form of storytelling that for many it is almost impossible not to see the world in these terms. Two people are fighting. One of them is a bad guy. Therefore, the other one is a good guy...

...The uncomfortable truth, as always, is that the war has not just begun. It's been going on for generations. And it's not a war of nation against nation, or even valiant "anti-globalist crusaders" like WEF-connected, biosecurity-promoting, false flag-perpetrating, political opponent-assassinating Vladimir Putin against the global control structure.

It is a global war against you.

To the extent that wars are being waged between the elitists, they are only being waged to determine which group of elitists get to rule over you and in what way.... - James Corbett

Taken from...

 

 

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/n-american-oil-companies-scramble-050518525.html

N. American oil companies scramble to find workers despite boom

(Reuters) - When Jeremy Davis was laid off from his oilfield job in Texas in 2020, he did not want to leave the industry after 17 years in oil and gas.

But his next jobs brought one mishap after another. He was hospitalized for almost a week following a shift at a chemical manufacturing facility; another company he worked for never paid him, leaving him short $5,000.

"There comes a point and time where you also get extremely frustrated with the unpredictability and (lack of) stability," said Davis, 38, who now works in construction closer to his home and family near Austin, Texas.

Davis says he would be open to returning to energy, but for now, he is one of thousands of workers in the United States and Canada who have left oil and gas jobs, put off by arduous conditions, remote locations, and insufficient compensation, or lured to the renewables sector as the world transitions to cleaner energy.

Governments are pushing oil and gas producers to increase output with prices hovering around $100 a barrel amid a worldwide supply shortage. The shortage of workers is limiting how much producers in the United States and Canada can increase oil output this year as governments try to find ways to offset the effect of lost Russian barrels following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Oil workers left the industry in droves after the COVID-19 pandemic started. Now, the U.S. unemployment rate has fallen to 3.6%, just a hair above the pre-pandemic low, but there are still roughly 100,000 fewer oil and gas workers now in the country than before the pandemic.

Oil industry employment in Canada has rebounded more swiftly, which has allowed workers to drive a harder bargain in negotiations for benefit and wage packages as companies try to maintain their workforce.

"At a job fair in a place like San Antonio, pre-COVID, maybe 200 people would show up. Now it's 50 or 100," said Andy Hendricks, chief executive of Patterson-UTI Energy, which is currently running about a sixth of the 695 drilling rigs operating in the United States.

His company may hire another 3,000 workers this year after hiring back 3,000 in 2021, and even has recruiters set up at a shopping mall in Williston, North Dakota, to find potential workers.

HELP WANTED

Canadian producer Peyto Explorations and Development Corp would drill more wells if they could staff more rigs, said CEO Darren Gee. Calgary-based Peyto produces 98,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of oil and natural gas.

"We probably would increase the capital budget this year if we could get people," Gee said, adding that new workers often lack experience. He pointed to the University of Calgary's move to suspend its oil and gas engineering program last year as an example of why the industry is struggling for new talent.

Employment in the U.S. oilfield services and equipment sector was nearly 609,000 in March, the highest since September 2021, but still below pre-pandemic levels of about 707,000, according to the Energy Workforce and Technology Council.

Mark Marmo, CEO of Deep Well Services, an oilfield firm based in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, said fracking work in places like West Texas is currently delayed about two weeks to a month because of a lack of labor.

"We hired 350. If we could hire another 350, we'd put them all to work," he said.

In the mining and logging industries, which includes oil and gas work, an estimated 14,000 workers quit in January, the highest level since early 2020, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 13,000 workers were estimated to have quit in February.

"We've had companies in the Permian that have gone out and hired 100 new employees and within six months there's only eight to nine original employees still working," said Tim Tarpley, with the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, a trade group whose members include Halliburton Co and Schlumberger.

U.S. and Canadian production is anticipated to grow even with a tight labor market, but executives said output could surpass expectations if more workers were available.

In the United States, output is expected to grow by about 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 to average 12 million bpd, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast, short of 2019's all-time high of 12.3 million bpd. Canada's production, including natural gas liquids, is forecast to rise by 190,000 bpd to 5.75 million bpd, the EIA said.

COMPETING WITH AMAZON

Fewer skilled workers are willing to travel to the remote Canadian oil sands region for turnaround season, when thousands are needed for essential maintenance on oil sands plants, said Terry Parker, executive director of the Building Trades of Alberta, because companies no longer pay a big enough premium for the inconvenience.

Parker said oil sands labor rates ranged from C$30 ($23.78) an hour for less skilled work, to C$50 an hour for high-skilled workers like pipefitters, boilermakers and millwrights.

Unite Here, a union representing hospitality workers in industry accommodation camps, negotiated agreements for better overtime for workers at camps operated by Civeo Corp in the oil sands, the union's Canadian director, Ian Robb, told Reuters.

In March, the union also secured a wage increase of up to 22% for workers at an Atco Ltd camp serving the long-delayed Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project, according to a news release.

In Alberta, the average weekly wage including overtime for all employees in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction is up 7.3% since February 2020, according to data from Statistics Canada.

In the United States, hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory employees are currently about 5% higher on average than the year-ago level, and oilfield wages are due to rise about 10% for the year, according to oilfield consultancy Spears & Associates.

However, average hourly wages in the U.S. oil and gas extraction industry are still below pre-pandemic levels, currently estimated at $45.45 an hour for February 2022, versus $48.37 an hour in February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Patterson-UTI raised wages last year because of competition from retailers that historically paid less than the oil industry, Hendricks said.

"We're competing against Amazon hiring drivers, or Target with positions in air-conditioned warehouses. It's easier than a drilling rig in west Texas in the summer," he said.

Oil and gas workers leave industry in droves https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/egvbkelekpq/Pasted image 1651180865162.png

($1 = 1.2618 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver, Stephanie Kelly in New York and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Oil-Set-To-Record-Longest-Winning-Streak-In-3-Years.html

Oil Set To Record Longest Winning Streak In 3 Years

By Irina Slav - Apr 29, 2022, 9:00 AM CDT

• April is the fifth month in a row that oil prices will end with gains.
• China's zero-covid policy has sparked demand concerns.
• The European Union reports progress on an oil embargo against Russia.

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Crude oil prices are set to record the longest string of monthly gains since early 2018, Bloomberg reported today, citing the increased price volatility resulting from the war in the Ukraine and Covid lockdowns in China.

April is the fifth month in a row that oil prices will end with gains, despite the slips caused by demand uncertainty as China continued to pursue its zero-Covid policy, locking up several large cities.

Despite these demand worries, the upside potential for prices remains considerable as the European Union reports progress on an oil embargo against Russia. Previously a staunch opponent of such a move, Germany has now mellowed, with economy minister Robert Habeck saying this week that Germany had already considerably reduced its Russian crude imports.

The latest from Habeck was an expression of hope that Germany would be able to find a replacement for Russian oil within days, with the official signaling this would put an end to its opposition to an embargo.

These updates from Germany became the latest to push oil prices up, reversing losses brought about by the demand worries. If an embargo is agreed upon, prices will soar even higher and extend their gains streak into next month.

OPEC+, meanwhile, is meeting next Thursday for its regular discussion of production. Expectations from analysts point to zero change in strategy, meaning the cartel will likely stick to its original arrangement of adding approximately 400,000 bpd to its combined output every month even though many member states have consistently failed to deliver.

Last month, OPEC alone added just 57,000 bpd in production, which was substantially lower than its quota of over half of the agreed 400,000 bpd monthly increase in OPEC+ output. The figure represented production declines in some OPEC members, such as Nigeria and Lybia, with most of the group’s increase in output coming from Saudi Arabia.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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• German Energy Giant To Pay For Russian Gas In Rubles
• American Oil Refiners Set For A Blowout Year
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