Javier Blas
US: $200 billion of M&A wasn't enough in oil patch
Even after a record $200 billion dealmaking frenzy last year, US oil and gas producers haven’t consolidated nearly enough. On a-per-barrel basis, there are still too many companies, too many chief executives, and too many drilling rigs wooing a limited po...
6 months ago
Biden, BP and the high-stakes sequel to deepwater horizon
A few years before going down in flames and infamy, the Deepwater Horizon semi-submersible oil rig made a sensational discovery.In August 2006, the craft — which was on a mission for the UK petroleum giant BP Plc — was drilling in the bottom of the Gulf o...
5 months ago
Food costs are falling, as farmers help slay the inflation dragon
The headlines suggest catastrophe for the global food supply: Biblical heatwaves, floods, storms and wildfires. And yet, in the world’s breadbaskets, the weather has been fair this growing season — so good that we’re facing an oversupply of key agricultur...
2 months ago
OPEC+ delays oil output hike kicking the can down a very uphill road
OPEC+ is like a teabag – it only works in hot water. The late Robert Mabro, one of the savviest oil-market observers, liked to say the cartel only got the job done when it was under prolonged financial pain. To judge by its latest actions, OPEC+ has yet t...
1 month ago
Big oil’s buyback bonanza for investors has a sustainability issue
When John D Rockefeller wanted to punish a rival, he cut prices to force them to operate at a loss. The father of the modern oil industry had a name for it: a “good sweating.” A century later, OPEC+ is giving Big Oil the modern equivalent of Rockefeller’s...
1 month ago
OPEC+ Faces a New Problem: A Texas gas pipeline
Now is the moment when common sense says the US shale industry should be slowing. With oil prices plunging 25% over the last year, you’d expect companies would surely react by cutting drilling. Yet American oil output growth is about to reaccelerate.The b...
4 weeks ago