Crude oil is collapsing!

Offshore
42

WTI is down 1.5% to $41.87 this morning and going lower

[B]Oil Just Fell to Its Six-Year Low[/B]

August 17, 2015 by Bloomberg

By Mark Shenk

(Bloomberg) — Oil closed at the lowest level in more than six years in New York amid speculation that demand may slip as economies slow, and Iran said OPEC output may climb to a record.

West Texas Intermediate futures fell 1.5 percent after manufacturing in the New York region unexpectedly shrank, and Japan’s economy contracted last quarter. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may boost production to 33 million barrels a day after Iran’s international export restrictions are removed, according to the nation’s OPEC representative.

Oil has slumped more than 30 percent from this year’s peak in June on speculation the global surplus will be prolonged. While U.S. crude stockpiles fell a third week through Aug. 7, supplies remain more than 90 million barrels above the five-year average for this time of year. The number of rigs seeking oil in the U.S. rose last week, Baker Hughes Inc. data show.

“There’s nothing on the economic front pointing to increasing demand,” Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts, said by phone. “The return of Iranian oil is expected to add to the surplus of supply.”

WTI for September delivery dropped 63 cents to settle at $41.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest close since March 2009. The volume of all futures traded was 9.4 percent above the 100-day average at 2:45 p.m. Futures are down 21 percent this year.

Brent Premium

Brent for October settlement fell 45 cents, or 0.9 percent, to end the session at $48.74 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude traded at a $6.33 premium to WTI for the same month.

A technical indicator shows prices have probably dropped too quickly to sustain further losses. WTI’s 14-day relative strength index is about 25, below 30 for the fifth straight day, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Brent’s 14-day RSI was near 29. A reading below 30 typically signals the market is oversold.

“The market is oversold after falling $20 in a relatively short time,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst for Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago, said by phone. “You can expect little rallies when a market has fallen so much.”

Manufacturing in the New York region slumped at the fastest pace since the last recession, damping optimism in the economy as the Federal Reserve considers raising interest rates at its next meeting.

Japan’s GDP

Prices also declined after Japan’s gross domestic product fell an annualized 1.6 percent last quarter, the Cabinet Office said on Monday. China’s shock devaluation of its currency last week focused investors on the vulnerability of other economies in the region.

“Shaky demand is the focus right now,” John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund, said by phone. “With the Japanese economy now contracting, you have to worry that the Chinese problems are spreading. We could be looking at the start of an Asia-wide slowdown.”

The global oil market is already in surplus by about 3 million barrels a day, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq responsible for OPEC’s oversupply in the past six months, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday, citing the nation’s OPEC representative Mehdi Asali.

Drillers in the U.S. have added rigs to fields for the fourth straight week, Baker Hughes said on its website on Friday. While the number of active machines has climbed to 672, the total count is still down almost 60 percent since December.

“Supplies are unrelenting,” Bill O’Grady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis, which oversees $3.4 billion, said by phone. “The Empire State index was abysmal and the driving season is coming to an end, so we’re looking ahead to weaker demand.”

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[QUOTE=lm1883;167366]Hedges expire in October. That will be the real story, also keep an eye on China. That’s the real story behind oil.[/QUOTE]
China is a sea of Red and getting worse every day

45

the price is flirting with the $40/bbl level this morning

[B]Oil Futures Keep Falling on Concerns About Rising Inventories[/B]

Price slump continues after surprise increase in U.S. oil inventories

By Georgi Kantchev Aug. 20, 2015 9:07 a.m. ET

LONDON—Oil prices continued declining Thursday, with U.S. crude dropping to fresh six-year lows, after a surprise increase in U.S. oil inventories added to the bearish sentiment engulfing the market.

U.S. oil futures were flirting with the $40 a barrel mark and analysts say that as refineries around the globe go into regular maintenance this fall, demand for crude will fall further. This could push prices into the $30s, a range last seen during the depths of the financial crisis in 2009.

October-dated Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.9% to $46.75 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures for delivery in September were trading down 0.2% at $41.19 a barrel, paring earlier losses.

WTI lost 4.3% in Wednesday’s trading session, settling at its lowest level since March 2, 2009. Brent crude lost 3.4% on Wednesday and has now been down for four of the past five sessions.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the amount of oil held in U.S. commercial stockpiles rose last week, contrary to expectations for a decline. Domestic crude inventories grew to 456.2 million barrels last week, up from 453.6 million last week, the EIA said.

“A build of 2.6 million in weekly U.S. crude oil stocks is not normally a big event but it is when prices are already under huge pressure and expectations had been for a draw,” said David Hufton of brokerage PVM.

The EIA reported that U.S. oil output fell by 0.5% during the week, but remained near multi-decade highs at 9.3 million barrels a day.

“Supply remains the main obstacle to any potential price recovery,” analysts at broker Marex Spectron wrote in a note to clients.

On the demand side, an unexpected outage that started last week at BP PLC’s large refinery in Whiting, Ind., is adding to concerns that the ample supply won’t be met by enough demand during the fall refinery maintenance season.

BP’s refinery could remain offline for as long as two months following leaks, said analysts at consultancy Energy Aspects.

Meanwhile, Mexico hedged its oil exports for 2016 at an average price of $49 a barrel, down 36% from the hedge they put on crude for this year. That signaled that Mexico expects prices to remain low, a further bearish marker for the market.

The world’s ninth-largest oil producer, Mexico buys options that will guarantee a minimum price for its crude and so protect its public finances from unexpected oil shocks.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock–the benchmark gasoline contract—fell 2.2% to $1.53 a gallon. ICE gas oil changed hands at $455.75 a metric ton, down $7 from the previous settlement.

we are a very long way from hitting bottom…

46

well, one can certainly say that in this low price market it is a great buying opportunity for anyone who has liquid cash to invest, but who has any of that magic stuff?

[B]GoM Rigs Drawing Little Interest[/B]

By Reuters 2015-08-19 14:43:40

A U.S. government sale of oil and gas drilling leases in the western Gulf of Mexico attracted the lowest number of bids on record on Wednesday as slumping oil prices kept producers from plowing money into expensive offshore prospects.

The yearly sale, held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), attracted $22.7 million in high bids, the smallest in the western Gulf since 1983 when leases were first broken down into regions, the BOEM said, reaping just one fifth of the value of last year’s offers.

“The continuing drop in oil prices and low natural gas prices obviously affect industry’s short-term investment decisions,” BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement, also stressing the long term potential of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.

“While this sale reflects today’s market conditions…it underscores a steady, continued interest in developing deep water federal offshore oil and gas resources.”

U.S. oil prices have slumped over the past year due to oversupply, from over $107 a barrel in June 2014 to $40 on Wednesday, denting oil producers’ profits and leading to thousands of industry job cuts. Even cheaper onshore developments have stalled as companies reassess their yearly budgets.

In Wednesday’s sale, five companies submitted 33 bids on 33 tracts covering 190,080 acres (76,923 hectares) in the western region, BOEM said.

Australia’s BHP Billiton was the most active with 26 bids. BP made one bid, Colombia’s Ecopetrol made four, three of which were made jointly with Anadarko Petroleum, and Houston-based Peregrine Oil and Gas made two.

Last year saw 93 bids on 81 tracts totaling $110 million in high bids. In 2012, when oil prices fluctuated between $100 and $80 a barrel, there were 131 bids on 116 tracts, with high bids hitting $133 million, a BOEM spokesman said.

$22.7M! That is absolutely NOTHING! The government might just have well given away the blocks.

48

your image didn’t come through…where is the point of turnaround you mention? $30/bbl? How many years out?

obviously, the drilling companies are all running for the exits

[B]Vantage Drilling Drillship Cancelled at DSME[/B]

August 19, 2015 by Mike Schuler

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., the world’s number two shipbuilder, says it has cancelled a 703.4 billion won ($595 million) drillship order from a U.S. customer after the customer failed to make an interim payment.

The cancellation was announced by DSME in a stock filing on Wednesday, which did not specify the client or drillship.

The drillship in question however is the Cobalt Explorer, which was ordered by Houston-based offshore drilling contractor Vantage Drilling. In an SEC filing released by Vantage Drilling last week, the company said that it terminated the contract for the construction and sale of the drillship pursuant to the terms of the contract and that the company would seek to recover all funds paid to the shipyard totaling approximately $59.5 million.

“The shipyard may seek to challenge our ability to terminate the contract pursuant to arbitration provisions in the contract, which would result in a delay in recovery of any amounts that might be due to us under the contract,” Vantage Drilling said in its filing released August 13. “In addition, the shipyard itself may seek to terminate the contract for our failure to make the second milestone payment for the Cobalt Explorer under the contract. Such termination by the shipyard might entitle the shipyard to retain all supplies delivered to the shipyard and all milestone and other payments made by us to the shipyard to date, and to elect to sell the vessel and claim any deficiency in proceeds against us.”

Vantage Drilling added that it may consider future alternatives with DSME for the delivery of the Cobalt Explorer, however no assurances can be made.

Earlier this year, Vantage Drilling said that it amended the terms of the terms of the contract for the Cobalt Explorer to defer the second progress payment until July 2015, which is presumably the payment that was missed.

Cobalt Explorer was supposed to be delivered by the end of this year. It is a 7th generation, dual-activity ultra-deepwater drillship equipped with two seven-ram BOP’s and 10,000 feet of riser.

DSME reportedly plans to continue building the ship and will try to find a new buyer.

Vantage Drilling’s fleet currently consists of three modern ultra-deepwater drillships and four jack-ups drilling rigs.

The drillship cancellation is the latest setback for DSME sparked by the downturn in the offshore oil and gas industry. Earlier this week, it was announced that 13 DSME executives and advisors had announced their resignation amid a restructuring of the company after DSME posted its biggest quarterly loss in Q2. The restructuring is said to include the sale of non-core businesses and assets.

On Wednesday, shares of DSME fell to their lowest price in more than 13 years in Seoul trading on concern that its liabilities outpace assets.

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then there is the ripple effect

[B]DSME Shares Tank on Concern Liabilities Exceed Assets[/B]

August 19, 2015 by Bloomberg

By Kyunghee Park

(Bloomberg) — Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. fell to the lowest price in more than 13 years in Seoul trading on concern that its liabilities outpace assets.

Shares of the world’s second-largest shipbuilder dropped 7.3 percent to close at 6,000 won, the lowest level since January 2002. It was the sixth-worst performer on the 1,002- member MSCI Asia Pacific Index.

“There are concerns about the financial health of Daewoo Shipbuilding,” Lee Jae Won, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea in Seoul, said by phone Wednesday. “The company’s financials should improve as it’s planning to sell non-core assets to raise funds.”

Daewoo Shipbuilding has more current liabilities than assets, Deloitte Anjin LLC said in the company’s first-half financial statement released Aug. 17. It is carrying out a restructuring plan and is in talks with creditors for new funding to ease concerns with its financial standing, the auditor said.

The shipbuilder canceled a 703.4 billion won ($595 million) order received in 2013 because a U.S. customer failed to make an interim payment, the company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. It will seek to claim the vessel and compensation for losses.

Daewoo Shipbuilding said Aug. 17 that company executives resigned and it plans to sell non-core subsidiaries and assets, after reporting a second-quarter loss of 2.4 trillion won caused by delays in offshore rig-building orders.

Korea Development Bank, its creditor and biggest shareholder, is re-evaluating the shipbuilder.

OUCH! That’s gonna leave a mark!

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and this ain’t gonna help either

[B]OPEC May Boost Oil Output to Record With Iran Back Amid Glut[/B]

Hashem Kalantari

Monday, August 17, 2015

(Bloomberg) – OPEC could potentially boost crude oil production to 33 million barrels a day, the most ever, after international sanctions are removed against Iran amid a global supply glut, according to the country’s OPEC representative.

The global oil market is already in surplus by about 3 million barrels a day, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq responsible for OPEC’s oversupply in the past six months, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday, citing Mehdi Asali. Iran can boost output by 500,000 barrels a day within one week after sanctions are lifted, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said earlier this month.

Crude has lost half its value in the past year as U.S. production jumped to the highest level in more than 40 years and Saudi Arabia had record output. Prices collapsed after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided on Nov. 27 to maintain production rather than sacrifice market share.

Brent oil for October settlement was trading at $49.01 a barrel, down 0.4 percent, at 1:18 p.m. London time Monday. Prices have fallen about 15 percent this year. High supplies in North America and OPEC, lack of demand growth and the strengthening dollar are all cause for the lower oil prices, Asali said.

OPEC pumped 32.1 million barrels a day in July, the 14th consecutive month that the 12-nation group has produced more than its collective target of 30 million barrels, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The 12-member group’s all-time high output was 32.8 million barrels set in July 2008, the data shows.

Iran made a “big mistake” when it backed OPEC’s decision in December 2011 to discard individual production quotas, Asali said. That allowed Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other members to take over Iran’s share which was diminishing because of sanctions, he said

looks like WTI crude is hanging above $41 for the moment but I still expect that to break soon

52

of course, stagnant economic growth globally coupled with steadily increasing crude supplies is a perfect storm to be weathered by high cost producers like offshore.

here is the latest on the unrelenting slide into the abyss

[B]Crude oil crashes below $40 per barrel[/B]

Akin Oyedele

Aug. 21, 2015, 1:03 PM 19,148 15

Crude oil just crashed below $40 per barrel for the first time since 2009.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures in New York fell more than 3% to as low as $39.89 per barrel.

On Friday afternoon, data from driller Baker Hughes showed that the oil rig count climbed by two to 672 — the fifth straight week with a rise. Shortly after the data release, WTI slipped below $40.

The slide toward $40 per barrel gained momentum earlier this week after the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected build in crude inventories last week.

This added to signs that the oil market remains oversupplied, with unequal demand, as the 12-member oil cartel OPEC continues to pump at an unrelenting pace. The group’s latest monthly report showed that its output surged to a three-year high in July, boosted by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Angola, and Iran. More Iranian oil is expected on the market when economic sanctions are lifted.

Oil is now headed for its longest weekly losing streak since 1986, according to Bloomberg. Oil is in a bear market, and prices are down nearly 35% from recent highs.

Friday’s drop comes amid a bigger sell-off in global markets. The major averages are seeing their sharpest weekly loss of the year, and the Dow lost more than 350 points during Friday’s session.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, fell to $45.10, the lowest level in six years.

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c.captain - what do you think is the bottom for this reversal in oil prices? How long do you think the recovery will take?

[QUOTE=c.captain;167555]of course, stagnant economic growth globally coupled with steadily increasing crude supplies is a perfect storm to be weathered by high cost producers like offshore.

here is the latest on the unrelenting slide into the abyss[/QUOTE]

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the world has more debt than ever, the last crash removed 12% of it.
Therefore the next crash could set another record as we are off the chart economically at the moment
One day you have to pay the piper

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[QUOTE=anrima;167558]c.captain - what do you think is the bottom for this reversal in oil prices? How long do you think the recovery will take?[/QUOTE]

if I had answers to your questions I would be a gazillionaire instead of the pauper that I am however as others have been saying the price is falling because global demand is slack and production has not been reigned in. For the bottom to arrive it will take one or the other to be ended. As long as world consumption is so low, oil will be low until someone calls uncle and quits over producing but no one we see has any intention yet to do that. I see well into next year oil in the $30 to $40/bbl range. It may even go below $30/bbl but not for a sustained period.

56

the plummet continues without a parachute

[B]U.S. Crude Falls Below $40[/B]

By MarEx 2015-08-21

U.S. crude oil prices have fallen below $40 per barrel for the first time since 2009. And industry experts don’t believe prices have bottomed.

A rise in U.S. drilling and a drop in Chinese manufacturing are the primary catalysts for the plummeting prices. U.S. energy firms added two drilling rigs this week, which is the fifth consecutive increase. Many in the industry are concerned the global surplus will only grow as U.S. shale production appears slow to respond to falling prices.

The glut in oil supply is even outpacing high demand. The International Energy Agency recently raised its oil demand forecast by 1.6 million barrels per day, which is the most since 2010. On August 19, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) said the U.S. oil inventory rose 2.6 million barrels to 456.2 million barrels in the last week.
Meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has a production quota of 30 million barrels per day recently stated that it pumped an average of 31.5 million barrels per day in July.

The energy industry is feeling the effects of the dropping crude prices. In June, the EIA said the US petroleum industry lost about 6.5% of its jobs from October to April, which is about 35,000 of its 538,000 workers. Shell and Centrica announced recently that it would eliminate 6,500 and 6,000 jobs respectively.

And the looming Iran nuclear deal could further flood the market. If passed, the Iranians could export as much as one million barrels per day.

Earlier this year, investors and forecasters predicted that prices would recover by the second half of 2015. Forecasters expect crude prices to remain below $60 per barrel throughout 2016 and don’t anticipate a rebound until 2017.

I believe that we have come to the one year anniversary where crude began its precipitous fall 12 months ago. It is a 60% drop so far but I fear that we have yet to see the bottom.

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And just like I tried to tell everyone. I said a few months ago it wouldn’t be back till 2017. Nobody is gonna do anything next year not only because of all that is going on, but also is election year and oil company’s don’t like doing anything till after the election… And even after the election they won’t do anything simply because of budget reasons… There gonna wait till 2017, once they get a new budget, and it will bust out wide ass open all over again. It’s a never ending cycle…

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Wishful thinking fella, this is as bad or worse than the bloodletting of 99. Just when we started to gain ground 9-11 happened and it went to shit again. Things didn’t pick up again until the hurricanes in 05. I don’t think major hurricanes would help that much long term in this case. I hope you have a plan C.

59

Yeah… Tugs or go back to work as a welder… Got that fresh out of high school and ended up hating it so yeah, have a plan C but keeping fingers crossed…

60

[QUOTE=josh.reid24;167690]And just like I tried to tell everyone. I said a few months ago it wouldn’t be back till 2017. Nobody is gonna do anything next year not only because of all that is going on, but also is election year and oil company’s don’t like doing anything till after the election… And even after the election they won’t do anything simply because of budget reasons… There gonna wait till 2017, once they get a new budget, and it will bust out wide ass open all over again. It’s a never ending cycle…[/QUOTE]

The oil producers don’t care about elections as they have very little to do with how they make money. They sell on world demand, make an educated guess on what the market will be 5-10 years down the road and plan accordingly. If you can believe the futures traders, they don’t believe oil will start recovering until 2018. Sounds about right. Within the next year some drillers will disappear thru consolidation as will many service companies and supply boat companies. This is inevitable baring some global disruption like a revolution in Saudi Arabia. The world economy is in a slow down, has been for over a year. The oil guys drilled and fracked themselves into a glut. They got rich and can take it easy for a few years.

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just to let y’all know that the conditions today in the GoM aren’t limited to the US

[B]More Lay-Ups at Solstad Offshore[/B]

August 25, 2015 by Mike Schuler

Norwegian offshore services provider Solstad Offshore says continuing weak market conditions will force the company to lay-up an additional 10 vessels, leading to the elimination of approximately 300 jobs by the end of 2015.

The lay-ups were revealed Tuesday in the company’s 2nd quarter and 1st half results.

Solstad says that the lay-ups, which will mainly impact the company’s platform supply vessels (PSVs) and anchor handling tugs (AHTS), are driven by the weak spot market in the North Sea and worldwide as the result of the low oil prices.

At the end of Q2, Solstad already had 3 vessels in lay-up, including 2 PSVs and 1 smaller AHTS.

“The spot market in the North Sea for PSV’s and AHTS’s is characterized by overcapacity and approximately 50 vessels of these types is currently in lay-up,” Solstad said in its report. “In the CSV-segment, the activity has been higher, in both the North Sea and worldwide. The general market outlooks are still weak and have not changed during the summer. In addition to low oil price, the uncertainty in Brazil and the sanctions between EU/USA and Russia have not changed to the better for the market. The company expect that the market will continue to be weak in the remaining part of the year and also in 2016.”

Overall the company’s fleet consisted of 46 wholly owned or partly owned vessels consisting of 20 construction service vessels (CSVs), 17 AHTS’ and 9 PSVs at the end of Q2. The company also has one vessel under construction.

WAAAY too many new vessels built in this past 10 years…

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WOW! Didn’t see this one coming

[B]Schlumberger to take Cameron for US$14.8 billion[/B]

Written by Melissa Sustaita Wednesday, 26 August 2015 07:59

Oil services giant Schlumberger (SLB) entered into a deal to acquire Cameron International in a US$14.8 billion stock and cash deal that will offer the industry’s first complete drilling and productions systems.

Schlumberger had set it sights on striking a deal like this as far back as June 2014 to outperform the market.

“This agreement with Cameron opens new and broader opportunities for Schlumberger. At our investor conference in June 2014, we highlighted how the E&P industry must transform to deliver increased performance at a time of range-bound commodity prices. With oil prices now at lower levels, oilfield services companies that deliver innovative technology and greater integration while improving efficiency, which our customers increasingly demand, will outperform the market,” Paal Kibsgaard, Schlumberger chairman and CEO said.

The agreement, unanimously approved by both boards of directors, will offer Cameron shareholders 0.716 shares of Schlumberger common stock and a cash payment of $14.44 in exchange for each Cameron share. As of today (26 August), the deal places Cameron shares at a value of $66.36 each. Upon closing, it is estimated that Cameron shareholders will own approximately 10% of Schlumberger’s outstanding shares of common stock.

The transaction is subject to several approvals, including those by Cameron shareholders. Should all approvals be met, the deal is expected to close as early as 1Q 2016.

Schlumberger is expecting pretax synergies of about $300 million in the first year, and $600 million in the second year, initially by reducing operating costs, streamlining supply chains, and improving manufacturing processes. Beginning in the second year, the goal is to grow a component of revenue synergies. On a pro forma basis, the combined company had 2014 revenues of $59 billion.

“We believe that the next industry technical breakthrough will be achieved through integration of Schlumberger’s reservoir and well technologies with Cameron’s leadership in surface, drilling, processing and flow control technologies. Deep reservoir knowledge further enabled by instrumentation, software and automation, will launch a new era of complete drilling and production system performance,” Kibsgaard said.

Both Houston-based companies have previously joined forces to create the OneSubsea joint venture in November 2012 to explore deeper waters.

“This exciting transaction builds on our successful partnership with Schlumberger on OneSubsea and will position Cameron for its next phase of growth,” Jack Moore, Cameron chairman and CEO said. “Together, we will create a premier oilfield equipment and service company with an integrated and expanded platform to drive accelerated growth.”

Simmons & Co. analysts Bill Herbert and James Book weighed in on the mega merger, in which they said that OneSubsea appears to be the strategic primary driver for this transaction. As we wrote several days ago “OneSubsea value proposition is blossoming, commanding competitive position in subsea boosting is inflecting,” the analysts said.

According to Simmons & Co., the deal should not be a surprise to many given Schlumberger’s history of rolling up its joint ventures: Smith, Eurasia Drilling, Saxon, Western Geco.

“SLB has demonstrated its singular financial strength and discipline during this downturn by generating prodigious FCF and reducing capital intensity, which provides strategic flexibility that most of its peers lack. Our interpretation of the subtext of the commentary on its strong financial position is that SLB would be disappointed to exit this downturn without exploiting it from an M&A standpoint,” Simmons & Co. wrote after 2Q 2015 earnings.

The bigger picture, Hebert and Bookout said, is SLB is saying that DW [deepwater] isn’t dead and that with enhanced breadth of capabilities, SLB should be increasingly at the forefront of driving transformation of DW [deepwater] business model. Further, given SLB’s drive to reinvent/modernize the land rig, the acquisition of CAM’s rig capital equipment business appears to make strategic sense as well.

OneSubsea has entered into a number of deals this summer alone, including a contract with Shell to supply subsea services for the 100% Shell-operated Stones ultra deepwater development project in the Gulf of Mexico last week. In July, OneSubsea entered into a deal to form an alliance with Subsea7 to design, develop, and deliver integrated subsea development solutions for the industry. OneSubsea also formed a subsea joint industry program with Chevron to develop subsea systems technology for 20,000-psi applications last month.

Earlier this month, Schlumberger launched a new survey in the Campeche basin in the US Gulf of Mexico to acquire the industry’s first multiclient wide-azimuth survey offshore Mexico. The survey will cover 80,000sq km using two fleets of WesternGeco vessels, including Amazon Class, the world’s first purpose-designed 3D seismic vessels.

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Of course you didn’t you short sighted fool, the hot game right now is mergers and acquisitions. Now is a perfect time to spend some of my hard earned cash. Shane appears to be hurting the most I wonder if his money men want out yet.

64

As predicted…

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/31/us-usa-oil-data-idUSKCN0R01T520150831

The U.S. oil industry pumped less crude than initially estimated this year, according to new government data that offered the clearest look yet at the impact of drillers’ retrenchment in response to collapsing prices.

The downward supply revisions were “unambiguously” bullish for a global market awash with oil, said Credit Suisse global energy economist Jan Stuart, suggesting the oft-cited resilience of U.S. shale producers to lower crude prices might have been overstated. Oil prices surged by as much as $3 a barrel on Monday, with some traders citing the new data.

The Energy Information Administration said its new survey-based output data showed the United States pumped a hair below 9.3 million barrels per day in June, down by 100,000 bpd from a revised May figure.

The June figure was also nearly 250,000 bpd below what the EIA had estimated a few weeks ago, highlighting the steep reversal in output as a five-year boom sours and suggesting to some analysts that a global glut might ease sooner than expected.

“If the downward trend in U.S. production continues, global markets should return to balance by early 2016,” said veteran energy economist Philip K. Verleger.

The EIA revised production data for the first five months of the year, based on an expanded monthly survey of operators that includes crude oil and lease condensate for the first time. As a result, output in the months of February, March and May was 80,000 bpd to 125,000 bpd lower than previously reported, according to a detailed breakdown.