RP Weekly Recap | February 15 – 19

Summary

On Monday, all 254 of Texas’s counties were under a winter storm warning at the same time. As wind turbines froze in place, natural gas pipelines froze shut, refineries shut down, and more than 4 million barrels of crude oil production was shut in; the amount of power supplied to the grid fell rapidly just as demand was increasing as consumers and businesses turned up the heat and stayed inside to avoid the weather. Now, millions in Texas are still left without power from an electric grid that had not taken winterization measures as low temperatures continue to rock the Lone Star State that is woefully underprepared for such a rare event. Check out these stories and more in this week’s recap of all things happening in oil and gas!

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 Statistics

• Number of Cases (Worldwide): 110,498,364 (up from 107,969,754 last week)
• Number of Cases (USA): 27,908,859 (up from 27,412,787 last week)
• Statistics courtesy of Johns Hopkins

Financial & Economic Updates

U.S. Oil Market News

• Texas Freeze Causes Largest Ever U.S. Production Decline
• Texas Was ‘Seconds And Minutes’ Away From Catastrophic Months-Long Blackouts 
• Who’s To Blame For The Texas Power Crisis?
• Texas Governor Bans Natural Gas Exports
• What The Media Isn’t Telling You About Texas Blackouts
• Texas Freeze Raises Cost Of Charging A Tesla To $900
• Spot Electricity at Texas’ West Hub Surpasses $9,000 Cap
• Oxy Declares Force Majeure Due To Freeze 
• Colorado Adopts Oil Industry, Environmental, Group Plan To Phase Out Thousands of Devices That Emit Methane
• EIA Reports Significant Crude Draw 
• Biden Administration Cancels Gulf Of Mexico March Oil & Gas Lease Sale
• Biden Administration Postpones Wyoming’s First Oil And Gas Lease Sale Of 2021 
• Biden’s Energy Plans Threaten Alaska’s Oil Ambitions
• Oil Prices Are Up, But Frackers Stay On The Sidelines – For Now
• NASA’s Perseverance Rover Searching For Fossil Fuels 
• Energy Transfer to Acquire Enable Midstream for $7.2 Billion
• Bill Gates Has a Master Plan for Battling Climate Change
• Fossil Fuels Aren’t Going Anywhere **INTERESTING READ**

Global Market News

• China Looks To Curb Exports Of Rare Earth Minerals To The U.S.
• Saudi Arabia Set to Raise Oil Output Amid Recovery in Prices
• Ovintiv Selling Oil And Gas Assets, Aims To Slash Debt And Methane Emissions
• Rhetoric vs Reality: The EU’s Battle For Net Zero Emissions
• Europe Divided Over The Future Of Nuclear
• Oil Rises On Fears Of Heightened Tensions In Middle East 
• Jaguar Becomes All-Electric From 2025
• Ford To Go All Electric In Europe By 2030
• Norway Averts Oil Strike At Its Largest Refinery
• Qatar Looks To Be World’s Top LNG Producer For Decades
• BP Launches Award Scheme To Rally Employee Support For Renewables
• Maersk Will Launch World’s First Carbon Neutral Cargo Ship In 2023
• Where Did The ‘Missing Barrels’ From 2020s Oil Glut Go? **KEEP AN EYE HERE**
• Is This Oil Rally The Start Of Something Much Bigger? **INTERESTING READ**  

Employment Updates

• Jobless claims rose to 861,000, Their Highest Level In Four Weeks – this number has remained stubbornly high for nearly a year 

United States Rig Count

• UP 0 from last week for a total of 397
• Down 49.8% from one year ago
• Statistics courtesy of Baker Hughes

RARE PETRO Updates

Content Updates – News Pulse – Podcast

• A NEW Basin Breakdown for the Month of January, and the first Basin Breakdown of 2021, is available now! Be sure to check out the articles HERE and podcast HERE!

• Episode Twelve of The Industry Leader Spotlight Podcast is available now! Be sure to check out our interview with Founder and CEO of Ethical Energy, Deb Ryan!

• A new episode of the Periodical Podcast is available now! Be sure to check out our discussion covering the relationship between crude oil and copper and how market evidence suggests there is energy building for a crude oil price increase to correct towards copper.   

• This week’s Periodical highlights the fact that since copper can be considered a barometer of global economic health, it is no surprise a correlation to oil and gas demand exists as a healthy, growing economy requires more and more energy. A recent divergence has developed between the two since the start of the pandemic, but market evidence suggests there is energy building for a large commodity price upcycle in which crude will close the gap and correct upward to its industrial cousin, copper.

• Episode 9 (3-D Printing) from our newest segment, the Modern Mobile Oilfield is available now! This series is a collaborative effort between world renowned author Geoffrey Cann and RP host Tavis Killian that will expand on topics covered in the book “Bits, Bytes, and Barrels”. This new segment is aimed at energy professionals at any level who are looking to better understand the future of a digital oilfield, and potentially implement these technologies into their company’s workflow. Be sure to watch or listen on all available platforms!

• As Always, A New Monday Madness Podcast!

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