Category: oil

Exxon, the Chase for Reserves, and the Oil Sands

Posted by: Steve LeVine on July 30

Talking to corporate analysts over the several years that I’ve been back in the U.S. and covering oil, a recurring question I hear is how Exxon manages year after year…

Oil Closes Above $70 for the First Time Since Last Year

Posted by: Steve LeVine on June 09

We return to the matter of oil prices, the questions being: Why have they more than doubled over the last four months; and are they headed still higher in the…

Dueling Scenarios on the Gazprom State

Posted by: Steve LeVine on May 16

Choose your scenario: Portraits in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times today provide starkly different measures of Russia’s energy might. The Journal’s Guy Chazan chronicles a fresh…

China Changes Calculus for Petro-Rulers

Posted by: Steve LeVine on February 23

Much has been written on how low oil prices will help to reverse the fortunes of resource-strapped Big Oil – if not precisely jolly over their new penury, closed-armed petro-powers,…

Is Exxon Right This Time?

Posted by: Steve LeVine on February 06

I’ve written the cover story for BusinessWeek, which hit the stands today. The topic is Exxon. The premise of the story is to take a reading of Big Oil by…

Not Everyone is Losing Money

Posted by: Steve LeVine on January 08

Pure traders are the only ones left standing in the crude oil speculation business now that oil prices have collapsed, sending hedge funds, college endowments and pension funds scampering. And…

For Big Oil, a Day of Reckoning

Posted by: Steve LeVine on December 28

Most of us are elated with gasoline prices, especially those driving to see relatives. We are down on the Chesapeake shore, and filled up the mini-van for $1.49 a gallon….

Run for the Hills! Oil Paradigm Shift Ahead!

Posted by: Steve LeVine on December 08

Sell the SUV, or fill it up? Buy a Prius, or wait and see? What if you’re a Russian or Saudi official — should you pare the state budget to…

The Return of High Oil

Posted by: Steve LeVine on November 27

In June, a couple of Dutch energy researchers released a fascinating, long-gestating report on high oil prices. At the time, oil was selling for about $130 a barrel, and the…

Pirates and Oil

Posted by: Steve LeVine on November 17

The news just became worse for oil companies and petrostates alike: Somali pirates — the scourge of cargo handlers on Africa’s east coast — have seized an aircraft-carrier size oil…

Irony at Lehman Brothers: The Stubborn (and Prescient) Ed Morse

Posted by: Steve LeVine on September 15

Here’s one danger of being lionized in one’s own lifetime. Just a few months ago, Goldman Sachs’ Arjun Murti, declared “an oracle” for his early prediction of $100 oil, predicted…

Following Oil’s Descent: Half-way There

Posted by: Steve LeVine on August 08

O and G readers will recall that on July 17 — with oil at $133 a barrel — this site predicted that crude prices were on a descent that would…

It’s Official: The Caspian is a Terrorist Target

Posted by: Steve LeVine on August 07

The surprise isn’t that terrorists appear to be responsible for an explosion that has shut down the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and sent world oil prices up. It’s that no such…

The Offshore Has Nothing to do With the Oil Plunge

Posted by: Steve LeVine on July 23

John McCain today credited President Bush with the plunge in oil prices over the last couple of weeks. He says the market is breathing easier because Bush has come down…

Prediction: Sub-$100 Oil

Posted by: Steve LeVine on July 17

Is the drop in oil prices this week a trend? Will motorists get to stop spending the grocery money to fill their tanks? One thing is sure and that is…

Gasoline Prices: To Trust or Not To Trust

Posted by: Steve LeVine on July 10

One of the vexing parts of the runup in oil prices is Saudi Arabia. No, not that it has so much oil and the world is sending so much money…