News of the Day: Job Losses Climb in Oilfield Services
OIL
Oil Is Next Year’s Gold
Clem Chambers, Forbes, August 11,2020
It is much easier to predict the past than the future, so you will have to forgive me if I am wrong about the following. Oil is next year’s gold. The world’s governments are energetically baking in lots of inflation for the future. Inflation versus deflation is the critical market call at the foundation of any investment strategy going forwards, so if you believe in deflation you are likely to load up on a very different set of instruments. If you are a deflationist then the only thing you really need to own is cash, because everything else is going to spiral down in price.
GAS
From the Washington Examiner Daily on Energy:
SUMMERTIME OF SADNESS FOR US LNG EXPORTS: U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas fell from a record of 8 billion cubic feet per day in January, to an average of 3.1 Bcf/d in July 2020, a drop of about 60%, the EIA reported Tuesday.
Things got so bad that during the week of July 12, only four vessels loaded U.S. LNG, carrying about 2 Bcf/d, the same levels as the second week of December 2016, before the U.S. became a major exporter.
This summer, EIA forecasts U.S. LNG facilities will have utilization rates of 35%, compared to the normal in recent years of more than 90% during summertime.
EIA expects U.S. LNG exports to remain low for a few more months before returning to normal by November as global demand has dried up due to the pandemic and Europe and Asia have a buildup of inventories.
MINING
Pebble hits back at Biden’s pledge to block Alaska mine
Jackson Chen, Mining.Com, August 10, 2020
Northern Dynasty Minerals’ (TSX: NDM) US-based subsidiary Pebble Limited Partnership said on Monday that any action by a future Democratic administration to deny its permits for the Pebble project in Alaska would be promptly overturned, given the favorable findings of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) last month. In July, Northern Dynasty Minerals cleared the last environmental hurdle for its proposed Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum mine in Alaska, almost two decades after developers first started considering the project. Northern Dynasty’s statement Monday was issued after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s vowed on Sunday to stop the proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, should he be elected this fall.
POLITICS
The Energy 202: Biden locks down mainstream green groups with Sierra Club endorsement
Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post, August 11, 2020
Joe Biden has won the backing of one of the nation’s largest, oldest and most influential environmental organizations — the Sierra Club. Ramón Cruz, the Oakland-based green group’s president, said in a statement that the urgent need to curb climate change in the next decade is compelling the Sierra Club to “do everything in our power to elect Joe Biden.” “The rising global temperature will not wait,” he added. “The melting glaciers and ice caps will not wait. Climate and social progress cannot wait.”