Coronavirus

Emergency plans formulated to deal with natural disasters and previous pandemics are at the ready to deal with the coronavirus, according to the energy industry’s top trade groups.

As Lower 48 natural gas and oil producers signal cutbacks to spending and activity, the latest data on permitting indicates operators already are “clearly retreating” in the wake of a devastating decline in oil prices and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

While Californians are trying to digest a barrage of coronavirus-fighting steps from shelter-in-place to a health care build-out that could involve up to 19,000 new hospital beds, the energy systems fueling the nation’s most populous state haven’t blinked.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday reported a larger-than-expected 9 Bcf weekly withdrawal from U.S. natural gas stocks, giving a temporary bump to a futures market laden with uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic.

The United States should embargo oil from Russia and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations in response to their efforts “to distort energy markets,” according to Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND).

The U.S. oil and gas industry is taking a severe pounding because of the oil price rout and the coronavirus pandemic, responding in turn by downsizing activity, spending and workforces, but analysts are warning uncertainty remains about whether it’s enough.

Fitch Solutions Inc. is forecasting a year/year (y/y) decline of 7-10 million b/d in global oil demand for the second quarter of 2020 from the one-two punch of the coronavirus pandemic and a price war between Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), analysts said on a webinar Thursday.

Oil-producing nations and their state oil companies in Latin America are poorly positioned to confront sustained lower oil prices, especially in light of the detrimental economic effects of the coronavirus, according to Mauricio Cardenas, an economist who served previously as Colombia’s finance and energy minister.

The U.S. oil and gas industry is taking a severe pounding because of the oil price rout and the coronavirus pandemic, responding in turn by downsizing activity, spending and workforces, but analysts are warning uncertainty remains about whether it’s enough.