The 2020 Olympics have been deferred, but the Geopolitical Oil Games are full on. Who will stand on the gold podium? Saudi Arabia, Russia or the United States? Will countries like Canada, Brazil or Norway even place? The rules of this game are simple. Major oil-producing jurisdictions negotiate, form alliances and collude on curtailing production. […]
Sudden shocks to a system are never good. Things break under stress, sometimes permanently, sometimes with unforeseen consequences. In the oil world, things could start breaking in a matter of weeks. Here in Canada the situation is likely to be acute, because of our concentrated exposure to one customer, the United States. Oil markets worldwide […]
I was a big Monty Python fan in the 1970s. The “Bring out your dead!” sketch from their Holy Grail movie was the epitome of black humour, a hallmark of the comedy troupe. Now we are watching real-time footage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scenes from abroad are disturbing, with jammed hospitals, quarantines and dying patients. […]
The coronavirus preys on the old and frail. Price wars kill off the weak too, in a corporate sense. Both scourges are ravaging the global oil and gas business, with little visibility on how or when things will be resolved. Market death. That’s what happens to weak companies that succumb to low product prices. The […]
