Goldman

The coronavirus reasserted its influence over the Lower 48 oil price outlook Monday as reports of new cases of the disease outside of China stoked fears both at home and abroad over the outbreak’s impact on global economic activity.

Insurance giant The Hartford this month instituted a policy to no longer insure or invest in companies that generate more than one-quarter of their revenues or energy production from oilsands or coal.

A major attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure over the weekend rocked crude prices, sounding an alarm that markets may have previously discounted the extent of geopolitical risks to supply, according to analysts.

Goldman Sachs on Friday reduced its forecast for natural gas and liquids prices for 2020-2021 because of the unrelenting onslaught in Lower 48 supplies and, barring a cold winter, lower demand.

Riverstone Holdings LLC and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are flexing their financial muscle in the Permian Basin, agreeing to pay $1.6 billion for a portfolio of natural gas processing properties in the Delaware sub-basin of New Mexico.

Energy stocks were rising with oil prices after countries closely aligned with the Saudi Arabian-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), including Russia, signaled on Saturday they would reduce their production for at least six months beginning Jan. 1. However, the U.S. response may already be underway, as rigs rise in the onshore.

Baker Hughes Inc. late Tuesday said it was teaming up with a Goldman Sachs unit and a private equity firm to create a pure-play North American land pressure pumping company under the BJ Services Co. brand.

U.S. oil prices should hold between $50-60/bbl through 2020 on improved unconventional productivity and increased overseas supplies, Goldman Sachs is forecasting.

Productivity gains made in U.S. unconventional oilfields were solid last year and now are melding into more quality driven gains, improved by optimizing targets and increasing fractures, Goldman Sachs & Co. said Wednesday.