Coronavirus

Natural gas futures floundered Monday as the prospect of a coronavirus resurgence and the potential for weak weather demand extending into December weighed on markets. The December Nymex contract dropped 27.6 cents day/day and settled at $4.789/MMBtu. January fell 28.4 cents to $4.861. At A Glance: Forecasts point to light weather-driven demand next month New…

Surging oil and natural gas prices drove higher global demand for NOV Inc.’s oilfield services in the third quarter as orders eclipsed shipments, but “pandemic-related supply chain issues” pressured some projects, CEO Clay Williams said Wednesday. Williams and his management team discussed the Houston-based operator’s third quarter performance and the outlook ahead during a conference…

Construction on the first phase of the Royal Dutch Shell plc-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in British Columbia, known as LNG Canada, has hit the halfway point, with activity to accelerate in the coming months. In a notice posted on the LNG Canada website Wednesday, management said the project had “just surpassed the…

Citgo Petroleum Corp. shut down a key component of its Corpus Christi, TX, refinery following an oxygen supply disruption from a vendor because of increased demand from the medical industry. In a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last Thursday (Sept. 2), Citgo said it shut down the Sulfur Recovery Unit B-Train…

The Texas oil and natural gas industry through July had seen a continued uptick in job growth, particularly in the Houston area, but the deadly Delta variant of Covid-19 poses near-term threats. An employment analysis of the upstream sector by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) showed a net increase of 1,500…

Domestic crude production held steady while demand for U.S. petroleum continued to rise last week, alongside increased summer travel and greater consumption of motor gasoline, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. The fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus presents increasing risk to Americans’ mobility – risk that could once again diminish demand for travel…

The Covid-19 Delta variant could dampen global oil demand and threaten U.S. natural gas activity if the rapid spread of the virus continues into the fall. In the United States, overall case totals and hospitalizations remain lower than the highs reached last winter before vaccine campaigns were widespread. However, reported infections are on the rise…

The economic impact of the Covid-19 Delta variant already threatens demand for oil and could dampen consumption of U.S. natural gas, particularly exports to Asia, if new restrictions imposed to slow the virus’ spread in China drag deep into 2021. In the United States, overall case totals and hospitalizations remain lower than the highs reached…

The Covid-19 pandemic cut the volume and value of Canadian oil imports from the United States but did not stop the northbound flows, according to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) and IHS Markit. Canadian imports from the United States fell 20% year/year in 2020, to 550,000 b/d from 693,000 b/d in 2019 before global oil…