Future strategy to survive discovering 1 out of every 20 bbls of oil we now use.

[sculpin]

Always find it incredulous that there are those who make such generalizing flippant statements with most likely little or complete lack of understanding of an industry.

 

The man who made that statement was the Saudi minister for oil for something like 20 years.  "Complete lack of understanding of an industry"?  He virtually was the industry.  And his point was: before we run out of oil we will move on to something else, just as stone gave way to metals for tools and just as wood gave way to coal which gave way to oil for energy.  Those resources were not infinite, and they have not been exhausted. 

 

I spent about 7 years studying peak oil in some detail and I understand the theory fairly well.  I am sure oil production will peak one day, but it is as likely to be due to lack of demand as lack of supply.  More importantly, it is worth thinking of what new supplies of lower cost production does to the supply curve.  Fracking is now lower cost than the oil sands and deepwater that represented the marginal capacity 5 years ago, and it is capable of growing fast and shoving those sources of supply off the end of the cost curve.  There is a lot more than just depletion going on.

 

Trusting Saudi oil ministers for advice on oil is akin to asking for advice from the mortgage derivative experts at Goldman Sach, Merrill, Lehman, Bear etc in 2007

[petec]

Always find it incredulous that there are those who make such generalizing flippant statements with most likely little or complete lack of understanding of an industry.

 

The man who made that statement was the Saudi minister for oil for something like 20 years.  "Complete lack of understanding of an industry"?  He virtually was the industry.  And his point was: before we run out of oil we will move on to something else, just as stone gave way to metals for tools and just as wood gave way to coal which gave way to oil for energy.  Those resources were not infinite, and they have not been exhausted. 

 

I spent about 7 years studying peak oil in some detail and I understand the theory fairly well.  I am sure oil production will peak one day, but it is as likely to be due to lack of demand as lack of supply.  More importantly, it is worth thinking of what new supplies of lower cost production does to the supply curve.  Fracking is now lower cost than the oil sands and deepwater that represented the marginal capacity 5 years ago, and it is capable of growing fast and shoving those sources of supply off the end of the cost curve.  There is a lot more than just depletion going on.

 

Trusting Saudi oil ministers for advice on oil is akin to asking for advice from the mortgage derivative experts at Goldman Sach, Merrill, Lehman, Bear etc in 2007

 

I won't dignify this with a response other than to say: time will tell!

[petec]

Oil is available at a price and at today`s price it is too low for fracking and most new sources.

 

Some here don`t seem to realize that U.S. production was 9.6 million barrels/day in April 2015 and is now 8.5 million barrels/day with most of that decline in Lower 48 States and due to fracking or lack thereof. And there is no sign of slowdown in that decline which has continued despite a few dozen rigs having been added in the fields over the past 5 weeks.

 

So some here should stop posting the non sense from the NY Times and other outlets and spend more time getting an understanding for decline rates and costs at various operations by reading MD&A`s of various companies.

 

Cardboard

 

I'm not sure if this is aimed at me, but if it is then a) I realise production has fallen and b) I do read the MD&As.  I'm not arguing that the oil price won't rise.  I'm arguing that the 1-in-20 headline of the OP doesn't mean civilisation is clinging to the edge of a cliff.

 

All I would add to your post is that costs (which are highly positively correlated with the oil price, with a lag) are coming down apace.  My guess is that the marginal cost of a barrel will settle in the $40-60 range, and that has been my guess for about 6 years now.  We shall see...!

[Uccmal]

Always find it incredulous that there are those who make such generalizing flippant statements with most likely little or complete lack of understanding of an industry.

 

The man who made that statement was the Saudi minister for oil for something like 20 years.  "Complete lack of understanding of an industry"?  He virtually was the industry.  And his point was: before we run out of oil we will move on to something else, just as stone gave way to metals for tools and just as wood gave way to coal which gave way to oil for energy.  Those resources were not infinite, and they have not been exhausted. 

 

I spent about 7 years studying peak oil in some detail and I understand the theory fairly well.  I am sure oil production will peak one day, but it is as likely to be due to lack of demand as lack of supply.  More importantly, it is worth thinking of what new supplies of lower cost production does to the supply curve.  Fracking is now lower cost than the oil sands and deepwater that represented the marginal capacity 5 years ago, and it is capable of growing fast and shoving those sources of supply off the end of the cost curve.  There is a lot more than just depletion going on.

 

Trusting Saudi oil ministers for advice on oil is akin to asking for advice from the mortgage derivative experts at Goldman Sach, Merrill, Lehman, Bear etc in 2007

 

I won't dignify this with a response other than to say: time will tell!

 

+1 : I wouldn't either. 

[Joe689]

EIA confirms API.

 

So is the decrease of imports due to the storm or is the funny business over.  I would think that all major trader's analysts monitor the storms, and ports and they should have seen this coming (if it was the storm).    Looks to be more than just a storm here.

 

 

[sculpin]

Recent blog post from Cale Smith...

 

https://www.islainvest.com/blog/

 

This Week’s Sign We Are Sleepwalking Into a Supply Crunch (#4)

 

Some highlights from the Business Insider article, “People Are Almost Completely Ignoring a Looming Crisis for Oil”, which includes this summary of a report from HSBC analysts:

 

“Given the backdrop of the past two years’ severe oversupply in the global oil market, it’s not surprising that few are discussing the possibility of a future supply squeeze. Indeed, most of the current debate on the long-term outlook for oil seems focused on risks to demand from progress on both the policy and technology fronts. “Meanwhile, we expect the past two years’ severe crude price weakness to result in a return to balance in the global oil market in 2017. At that stage, we expect global effective spare capacity to fall to as little as 1% of demand. Supply disruptions have had only limited impact on price in 2015-16 due to the global oversupply, but the market will be much more susceptible to interruptions post-2017. In addition, given the almost unprecedented fall in industry investment since 2014, we expect the focus to return to the availability of adequate supply.”

 

Read the rest of the article here, and in particular the ten-point summary. More than makes up for that breathless headline.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-oil-supply-and-demand-2016-9?r=UK&IR=T

[sculpin]

Q2 Letter from Islamorada Investments Tarpon Fund....

 

Cale Smith understands oil like few others and here is his latest:

 

Dear Investors,

 

The Tarpon Folio has returned 37.7% from January 1, 2016 through August 31, net of all fees. Over the same period the S&P 500 Index has returned 7.8%.

 

It has been a challenging time to be a value investor in the energy sector. The good news is that my being a stubborn fool seems to be working well for us. Thank you for sticking it out so far.

 

We continue to hold low cost-basis positions in sixteen energy companies that will benefit significantly as oil prices rebound.

 

Our companies operating in the Permian Basin of West Texas have continued to drive Tarpon’s outperformance. Our cost basis in Resolute Energy (REN) is $3.07 per share. Shares closed on August 31st at $16.91, representing a 451% gain. We have also seen a 594% return on our holdings of Clayton Williams Energy (CWEI), which we originally acquired for a weighted average price of $9.09 per share and which ended August at $63.11. Alas, neither position was a very large one for us in Tarpon originally, but we retain full positions in both companies today. All things being equal, both stocks should be ten-baggers for us at the peak of the oil cycle.

 

To be clear, we have owned a few duds during this oil cycle, too. The degree of difficulty when investing in small energy companies during the worst oil bear market in history has been considerably higher than I would normally choose to pursue…but, well, the potential gains have been that much higher, too. Fortunately, at this point, the difficult-and-duds have been jettisoned from the portfolio – some with extreme prejudice. But let’s just move along, shall we?

 

On The Permian

 

Analysts at Wood Mackenzie believe the Permian has larger recoverable oil and gas potential than the giant Ghawar field of Saudi Arabia. The Midland and Delaware basins of the Permian in particular "hold the largest number of undrilled, low-cost tight [unconventional] oil locations in the lower 48. No other region comes close." Much of the capital in Tarpon is invested right there.

 

The geology of the Permian is unique. It consists of 3,000 to 5,000 feet of a dozen prospective oil zones, stacked right on top of each other. These “stacked pays” translate into dramatically lower costs to produce oil, making well managed Permian companies the most capital-efficient oil companies in North America. Over time, as technology continues to improve costs and extraction techniques, Permian players will steal market share from other higher-cost producers – both in the U.S. and abroad.

 

That said, we are value investors. We aren’t buying companies simply because they can spell Permian and plan to grow by constantly issuing new stock. The Street’s history of myopically rewarding growth above all else in the oil patch has created a number of extremely low valuations among the more disciplined of management teams. We are looking for the cheapest, safest exposure to the Permian we can find - run by management teams that emphasize internal economic returns over growth-at-any-cost - in order to maximize our own long-term returns.

 

The largest, most popular publicly traded Permian operators appear overvalued to me – in spite of the oil bust. In contrast, none of our Permian companies appear to get much respect at all from the Street right now, which I view as a good thing. But that’s a subject for another letter.

 

With reference to those two outperformers in Tarpon I mentioned earlier - two of Resolute Energy’s recent wells in the Upper Wolfcamp play in Reeves County, Texas, are now producing pre-tax, full cycle IRRs (internal rates of return) in excess of 100% at current oil prices. And that is just in two zones of what could be a dozen plays in the same stack. Clayton Williams Energy, historically a mediocre operator, nonetheless has 66,000 net acres of really good rock also in Reeves County, and is having operational discipline thrust upon them by a large private equity firm which has been buying up CWEI’s equity and debt. Recent transactions in the immediate area put CWEI's landholdings well in excess of $100 per share.

 

On a look-through basis, an aggregated view of all Tarpon company holdings shows a clear, heavy and intentional portfolio weighting towards cheap, safe growth in oil production in the Permian. These companies should continue to be among the first to resume growth as oil prices rise – while either keeping their balance sheets stabilized and/or improving them.

 

We also continue to own companies operating in areas outside the Permian – including in Canada, the Bakken in South Dakota, and the Eagle Ford in East Texas. I characterize these positions in Tarpon as low-to-no-current growth, but cash flow neutral. Despite a lack of growth of late, they own good-to-great rock that will drive attractive internal returns once their balance sheets are fully in order and as oil prices increase, at which point these companies can begin to grow intelligently - and at lower cost due to improved efficiencies, drilling processes and technology.

 

Our other companies outside the Permian should soon begin to appreciate significantly as well, assuming a sustained rebound in the price of oil is imminent. And I believe it is.

 

Stocks vs. Flows

 

I believe that there is a very high probability that the global oil market is currently balanced – meaning daily supply is meeting daily demand, right now in real-time. This pivotal development, however, is not being reflected in the price of a barrel of oil for a number of reasons.

 

The first is that the data that should confirm this balance is on a significant lag.

 

U.S. inventories and production data are delayed and revised for up to three months. Inventories in thirty-five other developed economies (“OECD” countries) are revised on a four to six month lag. OECD consumption data is published monthly, but global consumption figures are only published annually. Nobody has a good handle on monthly oil demand in small (“non-OECD”) countries – and that number could be meaningful at this point in the oil cycle.

 

Quick aside: a really interesting question right now is…never mind “balanced” - if the world was actually in a supply deficit right now, how would the market know?

 

Also, speculation in the “paper” markets could be temporarily masking fundamental shifts in the “physical” market by way of sheer volume. This one takes a little bit of explaining.

 

The “paper” oil market dominated by speculators dwarfs the “physical” oil market of actual oil producers. The volume of WTI (West Texas Intermediate) oil barrel contracts (1 contract = 1,000 barrels) is over 100x the volume of actual barrels of WTI oil that move through the Cushing, Oklahoma oil hub – and is more than 5x global supply. In other words, in the short-term, speculation can easily overwhelm longer-term fundamentals. Thus all these volatile short-term price swings.

 

To speculators, oil prices should be correlated most strongly to oil storage levels in the U.S. It’s “stocks” not “flows” that matter to the paper market – in other words, the level of inventories is of much greater interest than the supply/demand balance in the market. Speculators are incentivized to exploit arbitrage strategies (i.e. attempt to create risk-free profit) that right now seem to rely on importing low cost oil barrels in the U.S. – keeping oil inventories higher than might be expected – in order to then export it at significantly higher prices and profit.

 

Seasonal demand for oil in the U.S. is typically strongest in June, July and August – but the weekly headline numbers for inventory draws this summer, oddly, not only came in smaller than expected but culminated in a series of small increases in U.S. oil storage. This seemed all the more befuddling because oil was concurrently seeing very strong demand, and we saw multiple supply disruptions in the market this summer as well, from Canada to Nigeria.

 

So how in the world were oil supplies in the U.S. still building this summer?

 

Strong imports.

 

High oil imports in the U.S. – ostensibly driven by both speculators and refiners – painted a confusing picture in the paper market this summer. And those elevated levels of oil imports into the U.S. are obscuring more fundamental trends in the physical market, specifically in crude inventory withdrawal numbers.

 

Interestingly, the data seems clear that (a) a high percentage of oil imported into the U.S. this summer came from “floating storage” – ships that traders rent, fill with oil and temporarily park offshore in the pursuit of arbitrage – and that (b) those floating barrels are just about exhausted.

 

If you combine the drawdown in floating storage stocks this summer with reductions in oil inventories this summer in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Canada, Venezuela and Iran, you’ll come up with almost 80 million barrels of previously stored oil that is now gone outside the U.S. And that’s just from places that are easy to track.

 

So “stocks” or oil inventories are coming down throughout the world. “Flows” are slowing dramatically (see the footnote below). Once inventory stocks have reached an equilibrium point where global supply matches global demand, and oil no longer accumulates in storage, then the market price of oil will be less driven by the paper market’s obsession with near-term shifts in U.S. oil inventories, and global fundamentals in the physical market will resume their importance. And I believe that day is upon us.

 

The Rest of 2016

 

It is possible but unlikely that imports into the U.S. will continue to trend higher throughout September and October – a time when our refineries temporarily shut down to reconfigure for producing winter-blend fuels. And once fewer barrels are coming into the U.S. less than leaving, we will see oil inventory in the U.S. drawdown at a rate that will likely surprise many.

 

To reiterate – it is global fundamentals which drive crude oil prices in the long-term, not levels of oil storage in the U.S. The current persistent inventory surplus in the U.S., more recently due to the large scale movement of other people’s barrels into the U.S. to capture arbitrage and/or refining profit, is creating an impression of abundant global oil stocks while masking significant worldwide production declines.

 

The speculators’ obsession with the “stocks” view of high U.S. oil inventory levels is dominating the pricing of oil today. A fundamental view of changes in production “flows,” however, not only provides little analytical support for the speculator’s view – it eviscerates it by the end of 2016. As a result, I believe this will become obvious to both sides of the oil market in the next few months.

 

So while speculators, oil bears and shortsellers appear to be banking on increased storage builds in the U.S. during the refiners’ upcoming maintenance season, trading on simple seasonality may not work when re-balancing can occur in unpredictable ways, and especially now that U.S. producers can export oil.

 

If crude inventories in the U.S. could build this summer, then unwinding arbitrage trades on imported barrels this fall could completely flummox those who are ignoring the fundamentals. And that, too, would continue to be good for us.

 

In Summary

 

Based on my own tracking of global production “flows,” the world is currently in a deficit of approximately 1.2 million bopd – and headed lower – compared to a year ago. Demand, meanwhile, is up about 1 million bopd over the same period last year. All of which means that even if something miraculous happened – like that, say, Rhode Island suddenly starts producing 1 million barrels of oil per day – the world will still see a supply deficit of over 1 million bopd by the end of 2016.

 

The mainstream media and Wall Street continue to obsess about U.S. shale and OPEC. They are missing the bigger picture. Neither U.S. shale nor OPEC have any material additional capacity, and the 40 million barrels of oil per day previously coming to market from the rest of the world is in significant decline. The capex is simply not there to replace that declining production anytime soon. And the geopolitics of the Middle East continue to simmer on medium-high.

 

As a result, I continue to believe that the oil market is at serious risk of sleepwalking into a supply crunch in 2017.

 

When it comes to our own companies in Tarpon, I suspect the most near-term catalyst when it comes to further price appreciation is likely to be the current record high interest in shorting stocks across the sector. I believe the bears and shortsellers are dramatically overplaying their hand today. The primary question seems to be what exactly will convince them of that, too. I suspect that seeing significant drawdowns in U.S. oil storage during refiner shoulder season might finally do it.

 

Regardless, by mid-October, a more accurate global picture of supply and demand should become clearer to all - free of the noise caused by a massive shift of oil inventories into the U.S. this summer.

 

Signs of this are starting to emerge already, most notably in pricing curve signals like “fading Brent contango” – a narrowing discount between the price of Brent oil available for sale immediately and the Brent price six months out, which reduces the incentive to store oil. This signal in particular is probably the clearest indicator that the market is beginning to sense an end to the biggest oil bust of all time relatively soon. Another sign is apparent in a recent price hike by Saudi Arabia on oil shipped to the U.S. and Asia. The Saudi’s own oil inventories appear to have come down far enough, and they appear to not want their storage levels to fall any further while global demand is still very high.

 

Either way, it appears the tide is about to turn. Finally.

 

If I am right about the oil market being in balance already, then we will soon see oil prices begin to increase for an extended period of time.

 

If I am wrong, and the world is not currently balanced, or if for some other reason oil prices continue to wallow in spite of important fundamental trends, then the probability of that 2017 supply shock will increase materially. At some point it will become unavoidable. And though our gains might be deferred, they should still be significant.

 

In either case, our reaction will be the same. We will be patient and wait.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

 

Thank you.

 

- Cale

 

 

 

*Footnote:

Much more relevant than market structure is market math. Other relevant facts from this summer supporting the conclusion the global oil market is currently in balance:

 

By the end of June, Chinese oil production had decreased by 376,000 bopd compared to last year.

In August, oil production in Colombia had fallen 102,000 bopd per day compared to a year earlier – an approximate 11% decline in a year, the biggest year over year (YOY) decline in its history.

The hot mess that is Venezuela has seen its YOY production decline by at least 200,000 bopd.

Nigeria’s YOY production is down at least 300,000 bopd.

Mexico’s YOY production is down at least 100,000 bopd.

In July, Russian production had fallen by 200,000 bopd – since just the first of this year.

U.S. production is now down from the peak in April of 2015 by just under 1,000,000 bopd.

Each of the numbers above, without increased capex, will continue to fall into 2017. They appear largely unaccounted for in IEA projections. In addition, Brazil production is in decline; Petrobras now only has 10 rigs working offshore. The North Sea is in decline. Etcetera. I think you see the point:

 

Global production is falling significantly – all while inventories are being reduced by strong demand. That oil inventories in the U.S. have been too high for too long appears largely due to arbitrage and refiner incentives, both of which are (for oil bulls) problems that should soon take care of themselves.

 

About Tarpon

The Tarpon Folio is an innovative, investor-friendly alternative to the traditional actively managed mutual fund. It's built on a model we call a Spoke Fund.

 

Spoke Fund is a group of separate investor accounts linked to a portfolio containing a significant portion of the net worth of the portfolio manager. Cale Smith at IIM is the creator and owner of this trademarked and proprietary approach to better transparency and integrity in investing other people’s money.

 

Fees for Tarpon are 1.25% of assets annually, assessed on a monthly basis. Turnover, taxes and trading are minimized in the fund, which uses a long-term value investing strategy.

 

For more information, visit our website.

[sculpin]

Grantham on Natural Resource Equities over the Long Term....

 

https://www.gmo.com/docs/default-source/research-and-commentary/strategies/equities/global-equities/an-investment-only-a-mother-could-love-the-case-for-natural-resource-equities.pdf?sfvrsn=3

 

Executive Summary

 

■ We believe the prices of many commodities will rise in the decades to come due to

growing demand and the finite supply of cheap resources.

 

■ Public equities are a great way to invest in commodities and allow investors to:

■ Gain commodity exposure in a cheap, liquid manner

■ Harvest the equity risk premium

■ Avoid negative yields associated with rolling some futures contracts

 

■ Resource equities provide diversification relative to the broad equity market, and the

diversification benefits increase over longer time horizons.

 

■ Resource equities have not only protected against inflation historically, but have

actually significantly increased purchasing power in most inflationary periods.

 

■ Due to the uncertainty surrounding, and the volatility of, commodity prices, many

investors avoid resource equities. Hence, commodity producers tend to trade at a

discount, and they have outperformed the broad market historically.

 

■ While resource equities are volatile and exhibit significant drawdowns in the short

term, over longer periods of time, resource equities have actually been remarkably

safe investments.

■ By some valuation metrics, resource equities have looked extremely cheap throughout

2015 and the first half of 2016, and that may bode well for future returns.

 

■ Given the difficulty in predicting commodity prices, the low valuation levels of the

past year and a half may be unjustified.

 

■ Despite all of this, investors generally don’t have much exposure to resource equities.

 

Typically, they don’t have large specific allocations to resource equities, and the broad

market indices don’t provide much exposure to the commodity producers. The S&P

500’s exposure to energy and metals companies has dropped by more than 50% over

the last few years, and the same is true of the MSCI All Country World Index. Those

investing with a value bias may be particularly underexposed to resource equities, as

value managers tend to be especially averse to the risks posed by commodity investing.

[JayGatsby]

And this supply deficit will come as a surprise. Please take a look at the share prices of Frontline and Teekay Tankers. When you have record high worldwide demand is this what you should expect for major tanker companies?

 

What has been happening for 4 or 5 months now is offloading of tankers sitting at sea that were used by various players who were benefiting from a large contango that has now diminished and others who were simply investing into physical inventory. This has had a major dampening effect on inventory draws during peak driving season. As this comes to an end or slows down and with fundamentals improving, inventory draws should increase when people least expect it.

 

Cardboard

So you're saying that the tankers were effectively a shadow inventory and that inventory as been reduced? EIA isn't factoring that in?

 

I'm a little puzzled by the continued oversupply. US onshore has decreased ~1M barrels and that's less than 10% of global production. I know Iran has added, but Venezuela and Nigeria have also reduced. Despite the demand growth rate cuts from EIA, there continues to be growth in demand while what seems like decline in supply. Based on what I know I would have expected supply to have fallen below demand, but I seem to be missing a piece of the puzzle... maybe it's the shadow offshore inventory?

[Cardboard]

I would not call it shadow but, it is not into EIA numbers nor into any international inventory data as it accounts only for farm tanks or land based inventory.

 

I still don't understand why we don't have good real time data on all of that. There is a company offering satellite imagery to hedge funds that does analyze all oil farm tanks globally. Not sure how they can estimate what is inside the tank (maybe infrared?) but, they are.

 

Ships are easy IMO. You just identify the type of vessels or tonnage and then with a satellite picture, you can detect how "deep" it floats. Depending on how deep is the hull you can estimate how many barrels it holds at any moment.

 

Cardboard

[Cardboard]

http://www.marketwatch.com/topics/organizations/american-petroleum-institute

 

API reports U.S. oil inventories only up 1.4 million barrels vs the very large draw of 12.1 million barrels last week (EIA was down 14.5 million barrels). You had to go back a long time to see such draw.

 

Last week was an anomaly being such a large draw and with the hurricane preventing normal shipping flows (large input and small output).

 

However, to see a build of only 1.4 million barrels with things returning to normal is very encouraging and refinery input was likely down with maintenance. It definitely adds credence to the story of floating storage having come down significantly over the past couple of months.

 

IEA poured cold water on the oil market this morning by revising downwards Asian demand. For the record, these guys have never been right or always predicting lower demand than reality. They must be at the service of some masters of the Western world to always try to keep the oil price lower. Real fundamentals will become too large to ignore here very soon IMO and the price should climb above $50 to at least sustain this industry longer term.

 

Would be nice if the Russians and Saudis along with OPEC agree to a freeze or some other deal on September 26-28 in Algiers. The market would start to respect them once again. I think that they need to.

 

Raising gas prices a bit may also help throw out of office Democrats which both of them can't be liking so much. Perfect timing.

 

Cardboard

[JayGatsby]

http://www.marketwatch.com/topics/organizations/american-petroleum-institute

 

API reports U.S. oil inventories only up 1.4 million barrels vs the very large draw of 12.1 million barrels last week (EIA was down 14.5 million barrels). You had to go back a long time to see such draw.

 

Last week was an anomaly being such a large draw and with the hurricane preventing normal shipping flows (large input and small output).

 

However, to see a build of only 1.4 million barrels with things returning to normal is very encouraging and refinery input was likely down with maintenance. It definitely adds credence to the story of floating storage having come down significantly over the past couple of months.

 

IEA poured cold water on the oil market this morning by revising downwards Asian demand. For the record, these guys have never been right or always predicting lower demand than reality. They must be at the service of some masters of the Western world to always try to keep the oil price lower. Real fundamentals will become too large to ignore here very soon IMO and the price should climb above $50 to at least sustain this industry longer term.

 

Would be nice if the Russians and Saudis along with OPEC agree to a freeze or some other deal on September 26-28 in Algiers. The market would start to respect them once again. I think that they need to.

 

Raising gas prices a bit may also help throw out of office Democrats which both of them can't be liking so much. Perfect timing.

 

Cardboard

Interesting. Thanks. If you seasonally adjusted it do you think the industry is currently in a surplus or a deficit?

 

Kyle Bass had an interesting interview that someone posted where he pointed out that even with the weakening demand people are still forecasting increased demand for the year. Even with today's further adjustment down that remains true. He'd said the supply/demand imbalance globally was ~half a million barrels per day. Since then we've seen basically 1M barrels per day come out of US (https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_crd_crpdn_adc_mbblpd_m.htm).

[Joe689]

EIA confirms API.

 

So is the decrease of imports due to the storm or is the funny business over.  I would think that all major trader's analysts monitor the storms, and ports and they should have seen this coming (if it was the storm).    Looks to be more than just a storm here.

'

 

So today's report did not reverse the week's before.  If it is the weather, it should have.....  Maybe need one more week to confirm as Houston had a passage way closed last week that could have effected it. 

[Cardboard]

I do believe that we are into a global supply deficit since sometime in Q2. Still into a deficit even with lower demand from the end of the Summer driving season. Reduced growth demand by 100,000 barrels/day globally for 2016 (from 1.4 million barrels/day demand growth) according to IEA does not change that at all. And when you read the rest of this post, you will wonder how they can possibly be this precise.

 

EIA just reported a draw of 600,000 barrels last week so it is even more bullish than API for 2 weeks in a row.

 

Moreover, net imports increased by 7.532 million barrels during the week while input to refineries declined by 1.4 million barrels and yet inventories still decreased by 0.6 million barrels? In the meantime U.S. production increased by only 245,000 barrels for the week with most from Alaska.

 

It is very hard to reconciliate these numbers. Of course, EIA has its fudge factor of 3.591 million barrels to try to make it right or simply showing how out of touch with reality they truly are.

 

And now they are pounding down the oil price after a slight rise following the report!

 

Bank of America has it right IMO. Maybe that the oil price will climb once bearish Goldman has loaded up on it...

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-setting-monster-rally-095000762.html

 

Cardboard

[jmp8822]

I do believe that we are into a global supply deficit since sometime in Q2. Still into a deficit even with lower demand from the end of the Summer driving season. Reduced growth demand by 100,000 barrels/day globally for 2016 (from 1.4 million barrels/day demand growth) according to IEA does not change that at all. And when you read the rest of this post, you will wonder how they can possibly be this precise.

 

EIA just reported a draw of 600,000 barrels last week so it is even more bullish than API for 2 weeks in a row.

 

Moreover, net imports increased by 7.532 million barrels during the week while input to refineries declined by 1.4 million barrels and yet inventories still decreased by 0.6 million barrels? In the meantime U.S. production increased by only 245,000 barrels for the week with most from Alaska.

 

It is very hard to reconciliate these numbers. Of course, EIA has its fudge factor of 3.591 million barrels to try to make it right or simply showing how out of touch with reality they truly are.

 

And now they are pounding down the oil price after a slight rise following the report!

 

Bank of America has it right IMO. Maybe that the oil price will climb once bearish Goldman has loaded up on it...

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-setting-monster-rally-095000762.html

 

Cardboard

 

Do you have a favorite position that you think might rise 2-3-4x if oil hits $70 or so in 18 months? Looking maybe for an out of the money LEAP spread, possibly on a levered firm. My favorite position in services is EXTN, but looking for some added kick.

[StevieV]

I do believe that we are into a global supply deficit since sometime in Q2. Still into a deficit even with lower demand from the end of the Summer driving season. Reduced growth demand by 100,000 barrels/day globally for 2016 (from 1.4 million barrels/day demand growth) according to IEA does not change that at all. And when you read the rest of this post, you will wonder how they can possibly be this precise.

 

EIA just reported a draw of 600,000 barrels last week so it is even more bullish than API for 2 weeks in a row.

 

Moreover, net imports increased by 7.532 million barrels during the week while input to refineries declined by 1.4 million barrels and yet inventories still decreased by 0.6 million barrels? In the meantime U.S. production increased by only 245,000 barrels for the week with most from Alaska.

 

It is very hard to reconciliate these numbers. Of course, EIA has its fudge factor of 3.591 million barrels to try to make it right or simply showing how out of touch with reality they truly are.

 

And now they are pounding down the oil price after a slight rise following the report!

 

Bank of America has it right IMO. Maybe that the oil price will climb once bearish Goldman has loaded up on it...

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-setting-monster-rally-095000762.html

 

Cardboard

 

Do you have a favorite position that you think might rise 2-3-4x if oil hits $70 or so in 18 months? Looking maybe for an out of the money LEAP spread, possibly on a levered firm. My favorite position in services is EXTN, but looking for some added kick.

 

Not Cardboard, but I'll give you my answers.  $70 WTI is a pretty aggressive oil price.  I think a lot of companies will do well from today in that environment.  I have two favorites right now.  PWE and BTE.  PennWest has had much discussion on the board.  It is my largest oil position.  With their recent transactions, they have relatively low debt.  What is nice about PWE is that they should survive under a lot of different oil scenarios AND will do very well if the price of oil rises.  I expect them to do very well if WTI gets to $60.  At $70, I would expect them to do very well.  If you look at the price action on PWE this week, you can see that the market is starting to price them as a lower debt, lower cost operator with downside protection.  Of course, they are still heavily tied as a company to the price of oil, but not as urgent as in the recent past.  I think they could trade at $4 at $60 WTI (versus $1.70s this week).  I haven't considered $70 WTI as much, but obviously, higher oil would mean higher prices for PWE.

 

BTE is a smaller position for me.  They have a large debt load, but relatively favorable maturities and covenants.  They don't have frequent redeterminations or near term debt maturities.  However, they definitely need higher prices and the debt situation is something that will have to be dealt with down the road.  I think their plan is to wait for higher oil prices, which should drive a higher share price and then they will do an equity raise.  I think they could trade at $20 in a $60+ WTI price environment (versus about $4 this week).

 

Obviously, these companies aren't XOM (or JNJ or whatever) and have a higher risk profile.  However, I think reasonable chances of 2, 3, 4x in 18 months.  The BTE price target mentioned above is actually 5x.  I am very much not sure about $70 in the 18 months you mentioned, but I don't think that the $20 price target is overly aggressive if WTI is at an apparently sustainable $70 in 18 months.  I would expect them to raise equity at that point. 

 

All prices in USD.

[Uccmal]

Hi Steve,

 

I have started a Baytex thread in investments.  Please add to your thesis whe. you get a chance.

 

Tx, Al.

[Joe689]

Will see if EIA confirms API this morning.  If they do, we continue to draw and where did all those  missing barrels go that were supposed to show up in the coming weeks?

[Joe689]

Looks like EIA confirmed and then some.  Thoughts?

[physdude]

I don't understand the market reaction but have a hypothesis. If one examines the historical data, the crude price kept on rising despite clear oversupply for a long time until it peaked in mid 2014. I suspect that it will require a significant period of clear under-supply for the price to start rising significantly. 2-3 months of such draws should help us see at least 60 or so IMHO.

[Cardboard]

http://www.marketwatch.com/topics/organizations/american-petroleum-institute

 

4 weeks in a row that we are seeing inventory draws and two large ones (last week and 4 weeks ago). Needs to be confirmed by EIA tomorrow but, that is highly unusual for this time of the year with most refineries in the Northern hemisphere switching to winter fuels and slowing down for maintenance.

 

Damien Courvalin at Goldman Sachs still did not hesitate to trash the oil price this morning with some $43 target for Q4 and prediction for a continued global 400,000 barrels/day surplus in Q4.

 

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/27/goldman-sachs-trims-its-oil-price-forecast-as-supply-surplus-grows.html

 

Of course, Libya and Nigeria supplying more to market is the largest known unknown but, even today a major pipeline was shutdown in Nigeria due to fire:

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/shell-fire-forces-closure-key-oil-pipeline-nigeria-120721503--finance.html

 

The question that analysts should start to ask is: what should be the size of draws from inventories once we are passed the shoulder season? What kind of price will be required to eventually stabilize inventories from supply and meet demand?

 

Cardboard

 

[Cardboard]

EIA more than confirms with a 1.9 million barrels oil inventory draw last week.

 

On top of that, U.S. Lower 48 States production is returning to a decline (albeit very small with 5,000 barrels/day) despite rigs having been added over the past 2 months. It is quite possible that many of so called Drilled but Uncompleted Wells have been completed in recent months and despite that and rigs addition that it is not enough to offset the natural decline rate.

 

Gasoline inventory did build by 2 million barrels but, distillates did decline by 1.9 million barrels so no real change in finished products.

 

Finally, refineries did reduce input by 253,000 barrels/day or 1.77 million barrels for the week for their maintenance and changeover to winter fuels.

 

It is getting pretty clear that oil inventory draws should increase to fairly large numbers by the end of October or when refineries return to normal consumption.

 

Cardboard 

[TwoCitiesCapital]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-meeting-decision-details-idUSKCN11Y2F2

 

 

Thinking about letting go of my positions in marginal resource companies at this point. Some of the coal and oil names I own are up 200-300% from their lows and up 20-40% just this week. Will still have heavy resource exposure through my EM names, but would like to sell the news now that I'm well into the green in most names.

 

[Uccmal]

EIA more than confirms with a 1.9 million barrels oil inventory draw last week.

 

On top of that, U.S. Lower 48 States production is returning to a decline (albeit very small with 5,000 barrels/day) despite rigs having been added over the past 2 months. It is quite possible that many of so called Drilled but Uncompleted Wells have been completed in recent months and despite that and rigs addition that it is not enough to offset the natural decline rate.

 

Gasoline inventory did build by 2 million barrels but, distillates did decline by 1.9 million barrels so no real change in finished products.

 

Finally, refineries did reduce input by 253,000 barrels/day or 1.77 million barrels for the week for their maintenance and changeover to winter fuels.

 

It is getting pretty clear that oil inventory draws should increase to fairly large numbers by the end of October or when refineries return to normal consumption.

 

Cardboard

 

It seems you may be right about the tanker offloading you mentiomed earlier.  Good call. 

 

[Uccmal]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-meeting-decision-details-idUSKCN11Y2F2

 

 

Thinking about letting go of my positions in marginal resource companies at this point. Some of the coal and oil names I own are up 200-300% from their lows and up 20-40% just this week. Will still have heavy resource exposure through my EM names, but would like to sell the news now that I'm well into the green in most names.

 

Not a bad idea.  I was buying Baytex this morning and selling a little off on this rally. 

 

My speculation is that everyone has been pumping more than they can keep up with and they are unable to even pump at levels this high going forward.  Pure speculation.  That would be the only reason they would make nice.