Oil companies that have been around for more than half of a century going bankrupt? With the sell-off in the Stock Markets & the negative issues plaguing the U.S. shale energy industry spreading to the Oil Majors, Steve St. Angelo makes the case it’s just a matter of time before they do  – R. Zurrer for Money Talks

As the sell-off in the broader stock markets intensifies, it will be bad news for the world’s largest oil companies.  Why?  Because cracks are already beginning to appear in the biggest and most profitable global oil companies.  While rising costs and higher debt levels have been plaguing the U.S. shale oil industry, these negative factors are now impacting the major oil companies as well.

When the oil price fell below $100 in 2014, it spelled doom for the U.S. and global oil industry.  As oil prices continued to decline, energy companies were forced to increase their debt and reduce their capital expenditures (CAPEX).  Cutting CAPEX spending while adding debt aren’t a good recipe for positive financial earning in the future.

According to several energy analysts, they believe 2018 will be a turnaround year for the major oil companies.  Unfortunately, the fate of the price of petroleum and the oil companies are tied to the broader markets.  When the markets rise, it’s good for the oil price and energy companies, and when the markets fall, then the opposite is true.  However, the next major market selloff will likely cause irreversible damage to the global oil industry.

Investors need to realize that the global oil industry required $120+ oil in 2013 to replace reserves and bring on more oil production.  When that price level was not obtained that year, oil companies began to cut CAPEX spending even before the price fell below $100 a barrel in 2014.  Today, with the price of oil trading at $64, it is approximately half of what the global oil industry requires to fund new production growth.

So, there lies the rub.  Even though oil companies are more profitable currently, it was achieved by destroying future production.  As we can see in the chart below, CAPEX spending in eight of the largest global oil companies fell 56% from $245 billion in 2013 to $109 billion in 2017:

Yes, it’s true that a lower oil price forces oil companies to cut CAPEX spending to remain profitable, but it will also negatively impact their earnings in the future.  While all the major oil companies cut their CAPEX spending significantly over the past four years, Brazil’s Petrobras and ConocoPhillips both reduced it the most by 70%.

Now, to offset the falling oil price, many of the oil companies resorted to adding more debt to pay shareholder dividends or to fund CAPEX spending (or both).  For example, Shell’s long-term debt increased from $36 billion in 2013 to $74 billion in 2017 while ExxonMobil, one of the most profitable major oil companies in the world, saw its debt increase significantly from $7 billion to $24 billion during the same period:

These eight major oil companies have increased their debt right at the very time the stock markets are beginning rolling over.  As I have mentioned, when the stock market suffers a big correction-crash, so will the oil price.  A falling oil price will force oil companies to cut their CAPEX spending, once again, to provide positive cash flow for their shareholders.  Furthermore, rising debt levels and interest rates have severely cut into these energy companies’ profits.

In 2013, these eight oil companies paid $5.7 billion to service the interest on their debt.  However, that nearly tripled to $15.4 billion in 2017.  Thus, $10 billion in profits were vaporized just so these major oil companies could service their debt.  We must remember, during major market corrections, ASSET VALUES DECLINE, while DEBTS & LIABILITIES stay the same.  Which means, a much lower oil price will make it increasingly difficult for these oil majors to remain profitable as a large portion of their profits is now being used to pay their interest expense:

These three charts represent the CRACKS that are now beginning to appear in world’s largest oil companies.  Even though the oil majors have been somewhat immune to much of the negative issues plaguing the U.S. shale energy industry, it seems like the disease is finally spreading to them.  It’s just a matter of time before the Falling EROI – Energy Returned On Investment and Thermodynamics starts bankrupting oil companies that have been around for more than half of a century.

While this may seem like I am overly pessimistic, the data and the facts speak for themselves.

Lastly, the public has no clue just how critical the oil supply is to our Just-In-Time-Inventory-Economy.  Even though the housing market is still booming, what would our Suburban Economy look like with 50+% less of petroleum liquid fuels??  Please don’t belch out that Electric Cars (EV’s) are the answer… they are not.  Also, the current electric battery technology used to power a semi-tractor trailer would only have enough energy to also transport a fraction (2,000 lbs) of the freight compared to a typical diesel engine (48,000-50,000 lbs).

Unfortunately, technology has not solved our problems…. it has just created even bigger ones.  When you understand this simple principle, then it’s easy to see how the world unfolds in the future.

Check back for new articles and updates at the SRSrocco Report.

With markets whipping back and forth this extreme volatility has generated unusual trading opportunities. Anticipating imminent price action in each of the markets examined below will refine entry/exit points & protect capital for long term investors, or generate short term trading profits. This analysis was gernerated mid-day March 22nd – R. Zurrer for Money Talks

Gold Apr Contract ( jUN ,  ETF: (GLD))
Rallying ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC news and extending sharply higher after it as nonetheless retraced to test 1325.50 at Thursday’s low. At least closing back under it was needed to reinstate the downside momentum. Now closing back under 1319.00 is the nearest signal.

Eurodollar Mar Contract (EC, ETF: (FXE, UUP))
Holding Wednesday’s bounce at the 1.2390-1.2410 bounce limit didn’t prevent probing higher overnight to test 1.2465. But that excess had disappeared by Thursday’s open, which extended back down intraday to 1.2365. Closing any lower would confirm the corrective bounce had ended, so long as 1.2390-1.2410continues to hold as resistance.

Silver May Contract (SI, ETF: (SLV))
Probing sharply higher into and out of and after Wednesday’s FOM events was retraced back down Thursday to test 16.40 down to 16.33. Just closing under 16.55 prevents launching a new upleg, and allows another close under 16.40 to resume the decline.

30-year Treasury Jun Contract (US, ETF: (TLT))
Ending Wednesday’s volatility at 143-16 continued to prevent sellers from gaining traction for their third consecutive daily effort. Gapping up more than 1 point Thursday through Monday’s 144-20 close was the consequence. It extended to probe last week’s 145-06 highs intraday, but the resistance held. Its reaction down to “lower prior highs” at 144-22 also held. Closing beyond either end of that range is likely to extend in that direction.

Crude Oil Apr Contract (CL, ETF: (USO, USL) (UWTI-long, DWTI-short))
Confirming Tuesday’s breakout Wednesday now requires at least an eventual third higher close. Meanwhile, testing 65.00 created potential for reacting down. The 64.25 pullback limit was tested, with room down to 62.70 before undermining the near-term likelihood of resuming the rally to 66.85.

Natural Gas May Contract (NG, ETF: (UNG, UNL))
Wednesday’s reversal extended down slightly deeper Thursday. The behavior can’t yet be considered “ineffectual optimism” for approaching its 2.62 target with such a slow pace, but it doesn’t contradict the ongoing likelihood for breaking through it by at least a dime.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) sees demand for OPEC oil actually declining in absolute terms over the next few years as it is edged out of the market by an explosion of shale output in the US  – Robert Zurrer for Money Talks

The US will supply much of the world’s additional oil for the next few years, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Over the next three years, the US will cover 80 percent of the world’s demand growth, the IEA says in its newly-released Oil 2018 annual report. Canada, Brazil, and Norway will cover the remainder, leaving no room for more OPEC supply.

The irony is that the substantial gains in output from shale will only be possible because of the OPEC cuts, which has tightened the market and boosted prices. This fact is not lost on OPEC producers. “If you are a shale oil producer, who brought you back? It was OPEC,” the UAE’s oil minister Suhail Al Mazrouei, said at a recent industry conference, according to Bloomberg. “Without OPEC there’d be chaos in the market.”

Indeed, the IEA’s new report paints a pretty gloomy picture for OPEC members, who are hoping to phase out their supply cuts after this year. With non-OPEC supply rising quickly, particularly in the US, OPEC may struggle to figure out a way to increase output without pushing down prices, according to the IEA’s analysis.

That could put pressure on the cartel to keep the production cuts in place for longer than they had wanted, although it seems hard to imagine they maintain the production ceilings for another three or four years. Doing so would mean handicapping themselves and ceding even more market share to US shale and other non-OPEC producers. Still, it is unclear how this plays out – returning to full production, even if phased in gradually, presents its own problems if the IEA’s forecast is accurate.

The IEA sees demand for OPEC oil actually declining in absolute terms over the next few years as it is edged out of the market by non-OPEC supply. OPEC production only grows by 750,000 bpd through 2023 under the energy agency’s forecast, although that also takes into account a 700,000-bpd decline in Venezuela.

The bottom line is that the IEA sees oil demand rising by 6.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) by 2023, with more than half of those increases coming from China and India. Meanwhile, supply grows by about 6.4 mb/d, with a whopping 3.7 mb/d coming from the US, nearly 60 percent of the total global supply increase.

By sector, petrochemicals start to take on a larger role in driving oil demand, especially as the transportation sector starts to see a greater adoption of electric vehicles. But it isn’t just EVs – abundant oil and cheap natural gas are fueling a surge in petrochemical investments.

Nevertheless, while the IEA sees an explosion of shale output for the next five years or so, beyond that the story is different. The massive cuts to upstream investment since the collapse of oil prices in 2014 will begin to cause supply problems at the beginning of the next decade. Spending levels are only now starting to pick up but are still at a fraction of pre-2014 levels, which means that there will be a dearth of new, large-scale conventional oil projects in several years’ time. “This is potentially storing up trouble for the future,” the IEA wrote in its report.

Moreover, natural depletion from existing fields essentially wipes out 3 mb/d of supply every year. That, combined with demand growth, means that the oil industry needs to replace “one North Sea each year,” the IEA says. But the industry is no longer spending enough to cover that gap. In 2017, new oil discoveries fell to another record low, with less than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent found. The lack of new oil in the works is sowing the seeds of supply problems in the 2020s.

“The United States is set to put its stamp on global oil markets for the next five years,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, said in a statement. “But as we’ve highlighted repeatedly, the weak global investment picture remains a source of concern. More investments will be needed to make up for declining oil fields – the world needs to replace 3 mb/d of declines each year, the equivalent of the North Sea – while also meeting robust demand growth.”

The IEA report will provide a fascinating backdrop to the start of the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston, where industry titans and oil ministers will gather this week. No doubt the aggressive forecast for US shale will provide a lot of fodder for conversation for both shale boosters and anxious OPEC representatives.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

“For the first time in a decade, we are looking at across the board global growth in both developed and developing economies, setting up tremendous demand for commodities”. In another on the theme of on incoming bull market in commodities (see Jack Crooks brilliant forecast), that comment above is proven with argument and facts by Richard Mills in this article. Another well worth ingesting – Robert Zurrer For Money Talks

The global economy is booming again after years in the doldrums, commodities are back in a big way, and metals prices are for the most part, way up.

In our last article showing how commodities are the place to be in 2018, we looked at five drivers: inflation, the low dollar, economic growth, the relative undervalue of commodities versus other sectors, and tightness of supply. This article expands on the economic growth argument and explains how commodity prices are being moved by a bevy of infrastructure projects around the world – all demanding “yuge”, as Donald Trump would say, amounts of metals.

But we’ll also talk about how insecurity of supply has created a climate of uncertainty around commodities, fuelled by increasing trade tensions that could lead to tariffs and quotas, driving up the prices of some imported metals – further exacerbating supply-demand imbalances. The US is finally starting to get that it must reduce its reliance on foreign metal suppliers, which is great for domestic exploration and mining. But first, let’s talk about global growth and what it means for commodities.

Three-Quarters of the World Is Growing

A year ago the global economy was stagnant following the recession of 2007-09, an overhang from the debt crisis in Europe, and slowing Chinese growth which had seen double-digit GDP numbers throughout the 2000s. According to the International Monetary Fund, 75% of the world is now enjoying a full recovery. The IMF predicts global growth to hit 3.7% this year, the fastest rate since 2010.

The World Bank says it’s the first year since the financial crisis that the global economy will operate at or near capacity. Emerging markets will see the lion’s share of growth, 4.5%, while advanced economies including the US, Japan, and the EU will grow at 2.2%. China is expected to grow between 6 and 7%. India, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Philippines will grow more than China, and eight of the 10 fastest-growing countries this year are likely to be in Africa, according to consulting firm PwC.

Goldman Sachs was quoted saying that “rising commodity prices will create a virtuous circle, improving the balance sheets of producers and lenders, and expanding credit in emerging markets that will, in turn, reinforce global economic growth.”

At the end of 2017 the Bloomberg Commodity Index, which measures returns on 22 raw materials, had the longest rally on record dating back 27 years to 1991.

.….continue reading and viewing charts HERE

For those bullish oil, Jack Crooks sees an immediate temporary decline of $5-$6 to the mid-fifties. Setting up a great opportunity to get long, or for those not willing to suffer a decline a chance to get out now – Robert Zurrer for Money Talks

We continue to be long-term bulls on oil; but we went short this afternoon for a trade. We are targeting down to the mid-50’s for oil on this EW chart setup.  We have overlaid the US dollar index (inverted in blue) so you can see the correlation.  (I.E. because the dollar index is inverted, when the blue line goes down it means the US dollar is actually increasing in value.  Thus, oil and the dollar are actually negatively correlated, as you likely know.)  The dollar staged a strong reversal rally this afternoon and looks as if it has more to run, even if this is not the major move we are expecting at some time.  Either way, we think oil short here is a good trade idea.  

 go to http://www.blackswantrading.com or http://www.blackswantrading.com/blog/ for his free Currency Currents where this article appeared today.