"Despite slumping prices, no end in sight for US oil boom" by Clifford Krauss | New York Times
HOUSTON — Falling oil and gasoline prices have sent oil company stocks tumbling, but oil experts say the boom in American energy production shows no signs of slowing down, keeping the market flush with crude and gasoline prices low.
Even after a drop of as much as 25 percent in oil prices since early summer, several government and private reports say it would take a drop of $10 to $20 a barrel more — to as low as $60 a barrel — to slow production even modestly.
Current production levels can be sustained in the shale fields in 2015 even if the Brent global oil benchmark, which fell to just under $84 a barrel at one point last week, dropped to as low as $60 to $65, according to Rystad Energy, an international oil-and-gas consulting firm based in Norway.
Related: Norway’s amazing new abstract currency
“Oil output will respond very slowly to a drop in oil prices,” Bjornar Tonhaugen, vice president for oil and gas markets at Rystad Energy, wrote in a report released this week. “Markets may even be oversupplied next year more than previously thought.”
The Energy Department this week reported that only 4 percent of shale production in North Dakota, Texas, and other states needed an oil price above $80 a barrel for producers to break even on investments. One reason is that improved efficiencies in hydraulic fracturing and other modern production techniques have increased the output of each new well month after month in recent years.
That is not what I've heard. The yield forecasts are being cut and the drop in price is bankrupting companies.
Global and American benchmark oil prices bounced back a bit Friday, ranging between roughly $83 and $86. The US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, fell below $80 for the first time in two years briefly Thursday morning, and some oil experts say it could break the symbolic threshold again in coming days.
Lower oil prices mean lower prices at the pump for American consumers. The average national price for a gallon of regular gasoline on Friday was $3.14, 10 cents lower than it was a week ago and 22 cents lower than a year ago, according to the AAA motor club. That is the lowest price in more than three years.
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Related: Globe Gasses Up While Stocks Drop
Also see:
Yellen Hooray!
U.S. Stock Market on Life $upport
The Market is Manic Depre$$ive
I don't want to be around them today.
"GE’s profit rose 11 percent in 3rd quarter" by Steve Lohr | New York Times October 19, 2014
General Electric Co. stepped up its strategy of shedding businesses outside its industrial core during its third quarter. It spun off its North American consumer finance unit, Synchrony Financial, in an initial public offering, and agreed to sell its consumer appliances business to Electrolux for $3.3 billion.
$uckered some folks into an IPO, huh?
The question now is how well the industrial engine driving the company will perform, particularly as the global economy looks increasingly shaky. GE, the largest industrial company in the United States, reported results Friday that showed encouraging progress.
Profit slightly exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, and revenue was a bit below them. That modest shortfall, GE executives said in a conference call, was explained by some gas and wind turbine sales that were pushed back a few months, and should be completed before the end of the year.
Looking ahead, GE executives said they expected strong demand for equipment like rail locomotives and jet engines, with industrial orders overall up 22 percent. Orders in the United States rose 25 percent.
Current orders signal future sales, and in their call with analysts, executives presented an optimistic outlook, despite the recent turbulence in the financial markets and falling oil prices.
Look, they are on a high again.
The company said that it expected industrial revenue growth for the year to beat the higher end of the 4 to 7 percent range projected previously. “We’re looking for a very strong fourth quarter,” said Jeffrey S. Bornstein, GE’s chief financial officer.
The company reported a profit of $3.5 billion, an 11 percent increase from the year-earlier quarter.
That's over $1.1 BILLION a month, and $250 MILLION a WEEK!
Its operating earnings from continuing operations, which exclude the impact from operations sold off or closed down, rose 6 percent, to 38 cents a share. That was slightly ahead of the average estimate of securities analysts of 37 cents a share.
Revenue rose 1 percent, to $36.2 billion, from $35.7 billion last year.
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Related: GE Puts Good Things to Death
How much of a "tax refund(?)" did they get this year?
Also see: An Electrifying Ending to Global Warming
The bill will steam you up, thus making it warmer still!
As for me, I've run out of energy again.
