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Prices have normalized since the shock of Russian troops marching on Kyiv last year lit up crude and natural gas markets. Dated Brent was assessed by Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, at $129.515/b on March 9, 2022, a day after US President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning imports of Russian oil, gas and coal. The benchmark was last assessed at $75.31/b on May 12.

A few months later, Dutch TTF month-ahead natural gas prices hit an all-time high Eur319.98/MWh in late August 2022, after Russia stopped the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The pipeline and its twin Nord Stream 2 were later damaged by several suspicious undersea explosions. European gas prices are now back to Eur35/MWh and storage levels are at a healthy 62% of capacity.

Russia’s oil revenues rebounded in March and April to reach the highest level since November last year, according to a new report, bolstering President Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance the Kremlin’s onslaught in Ukraine.

Analysis published Wednesday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an independent Finnish think tank, found that Russia’s revenues from oil exports have recovered from levels reached in January and February.

Russia’s oil revenues have rebounded in March–April from levels reached in January–February 2023, rising to the highest level since November, even as the G7 leaders stated at the conclusion of the Hiroshima Summit that the price cap is working. The latest analysis from the Centre for Research in Energy and Clean Air (CREA) shows that the price cap policy had a good start after it came into force in December 2022. However, it has since lost traction, integrity and credibility as the members of the Price Cap Coalition failed to revise price levels and enforce the policy.

Our key findings include:

However, unconventional deposits are primarily those where the oil and gas could not migrate to conventional traps, but are stuck in the very tight and tiny pores and fractures in these tight rocks, mainly shales and tight sandstones, or are not very fluid like heavy oils and tars. The ability to seriously exploit these unconventional reserves did not exist practically before 2000.

Think of conventional versus unconventional oil like jelly donuts versus tiramisu (see figure). Drilling into conventional sources is like sticking a straw in a jelly donut – the petroleum is trapped in a large single formation that just flows out under pressure.

In Hubbert’s time, most of the conventional oil reserves had already been discovered. Hubbert went on to predict that U.S. production would peak in 1969, and it did appear to peak in 1970. World reserves were supposed to peak around 2010 (see figure).

However, about 20 years ago, the industry really leapt forward on the technologies to find oil and to extract it. Particularly fracking.

5 Ways the Oil and Gas Industry is Approaching Sustainability

Since oil and gas will remain a significant part of the global energy mix for many years to come, companies will need to develop transparent and proactive sustainability strategies. According to a recent survey by SAP and Oxford Economics, more than three-quarters of energy and utility executives say sustainability issues are a major concern and almost have committed to a net-zero carbon goal.

IOGP, IEA, and OGCI initiatives to drill for oil in environmentally sustainable ways

Sami Alnuaim 18, 2019 SPE President, has been with Saudi Aramco for 30 years, where he has worked in reservoir engineering, production engineering, research and development, and at the upstream computer center,11/30/18, “What Does Sustainability Mean for Oil and Gas,” https://jpt.spe.org/what-does-sustainability-mean-oil-and-gas //SBM

Energy markets are awakening to climate risks. The debate around the energy transition has shifted from whether one will occur to when it will happen and what it will look like.

Sustainability risks have come under heavy investor scrutiny. “In the near future — and sooner than most anticipate — there will be a significant reallocation of capital,” Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said in January.

July 11 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Tuesday, recouping some of the losses from the previous session, as traders focused on supply cuts by the world’s biggest oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia and awaited data that could help ascertain demand.

Brent crude futures rose 33 cents, or 0.4%, to $78 a barrel by 0050 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 35 cents, or 0.5%, at $73.34.

Just when America’s drivers thought the worst of the summer gasoline price spike was in the rearview mirror, geopolitics strikes back.

A gallon of gas costs $3.83 today, up about $0.05 over the past month, reversing a months long trend of declining prices after hitting record highs of $5 a gallon earlier this summer.

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) - Oil rose on Friday and posted a weekly gain, as higher Chinese demand and OPEC+ supply cuts lifted prices, despite expected weakness in the global economy and the prospect for further interest rate hikes.

Brent crude gained 94 cents to settle at $76.61 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.16 to $71.78.

The series of oil output cuts orchestrated by Saudi Arabia since last fall may finally be having an impact on prices. Markets had largely ignored those moves, focusing instead on the shaky global economy, but this week the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose above $80 a barrel for the first time since late April.

In a report published on Thursday, the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based monitoring group, said output cuts could lead to substantial deficits in global oil supplies, beginning in July, potentially pushing up prices and squeezing consumers.

U.S. crude oil gained about 3% on Wednesday, narrowing the price gap with global benchmark Brent in a post-holiday response to supply cuts announced on Monday by Saudi Arabia and Russia, as market participants awaited U.S. demand data for the Fourth of July weekend.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) rose $2 from Monday’s close, or 2.9%, to settle at $71.79 a barrel. Brent crude futures rose 40 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $76.65 a barrel, after gaining $1.60 a barrel on Tuesday.

Scott Disavino 07/07, Reuters Energy Correspondent specializing in North American natural gas and power, 07/07/23, “Oil prices up 3% to 9-week high on supply concerns,” https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-prices-steady-rate-hike-fears-offset-signs-tightening-supply-2023-07-07/#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%2C%20July%207%20(Reuters,and%20reduce%20demand%20for%20oil. //SBM

NEW YORK, July 7 (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed about 3% to a nine-week high on Friday as supply concerns and technical buying outweighed fears that further interest rate hikes could slow economic growth and reduce demand for oil.

NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped on Tuesday, settling up about 2%, boosted by a falling U.S. dollar, hopes for higher demand in the developing world and supply cuts by the world's biggest oil exporters.

Brent futures rose $1.71, or 2.2%, to settle at $79.40 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $1.84, or 2.5%, to settle at $74.83.

The conflicts erupting between the different capitalist regimes in the Middle East pose an imminent threat not only to the population of the region, but to the entire world. Workers can give no support to any of the competing military plans and strategic appetites of these reactionary regimes. With America, Europe, Russia and China all deeply involved in the proxy war in Syria, a large-scale Middle East war could strangle the world oil supply and escalate into war between nuclear-armed powers. The working class is coming face to face with the real possibility of a Third World War.

The collapse in oil prices has created a bleak outlook for a number of companies and also could lead to dire political consequences for governments in the Middle East and Russia, whose budgets are already strained and who depend on fossil fuel revenue, say Western diplomats and political analysts.

If oil prices do not recover soon, analysts warn, even strong central powers risk destabilization.

Amid the dizzying acceleration of headlines and debate about the vital global transition to renewable energy, new research shows how that change could destabilize dozens of fragile states that depend heavily on oil exports. The new study underscores that governments and international institutions will need to guard against risks that the shift away from carbon-heavy fuels will inadvertently upset political balances and potentially ignite violent conflicts in a swath of nations from Venezuela to Nigeria to Iraq and beyond. Above all, the research suggests, the world must avoid an unplanned “traumatic decarbonization” of these economies.

The U.S. recommitment to the Paris climate accords — plus summit conferences called by the Biden administration, the G7 nations and NATO — reflect the reality that countries are moving to cut their oil consumption in hope of constraining the planet’s warming. Politicians in the world’s more comfortably developed nations focus on managing this transition to serve their own economies and polities, meeting costs and generating jobs, with an eye toward winning the next election.

NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose over 1% on Thursday to their highest in nearly three months after U.S. inflation data suggested interest rates in the world's biggest economy were close to their peak.

Brent crude futures rose $1.25, or 1.6%, to settle at $81.36 per barrel. The session peak was $81.57, the highest since April 25.

If today’s Russia follows these countries’ footsteps into collapse, it will have little to do with the Russian elite’s will or Western policies. Bigger structural forces are at work. Putin’s Russia suffers from a slew of mutually reinforcing tensions that have produced a state that is far more fragile than his braggadocio would suggest. They include military, moral, and economic defeat in the Ukraine war—but also the brittleness and ineffectiveness of Putin’s hyper-centralized political system; the collapse of his macho personality cult as he faces defeat, illness, and visible age; the gross mismanagement of Russia’s petrostate economy; the untrammeled corruption that penetrates all levels of society; and the vast ethnic and regional cleavages in the world’s last unreconstructed empire. Even though few may want Russia’s dissolution today, it’s not too difficult to imagine a scenario where growing political, economic, and social instability will, at some point, compel Russia’s constituent units to seek safety in independence.

When Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov celebrated his birthday earlier this week with a birthday cake showing Russia sliced into several pieces, it was, of course, an epic act of trolling. But the idea behind the image on the icing doesn’t seem all that far-fetched at all.