There was a 1-rig bump in drilling activity in the Permian Basin, landing at 305 in the most prolific basin—a figure that is 10 fewer than this same time last year. The count in the Eagle Ford saw no change to the number of active drilling rigs, hovering at 48. Rigs in the Eagle Ford are 4 below where they were this time last year.
“Oil prices came under pressure in February as trade war uncertainty overshadowed sanctions-related supply risks,” ING’s commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said this week.
Domestic power prices have been very volatile in recent months amid low wind speeds. Germany has been experiencing lower-than-normal winds for four months, which have reduced wind power generation, boosting electricity prices and the reliance on fossil fuels. Electricity prices have been rising this year due to higher natural gas prices in Europe amid a cold winter, lower wind generation, and faster depletion of natural gas inventories.
At the end of January, Sheinbaum sent a draft energy reform to Congress, which aims to accelerate the energy transition and improve access to energy, partially by allowing greater private sector investment in the sector. The Senate approved the reform on the 26th of February with 85 votes in favour, 39 against, and one abstention.
The US has made over 100 GW of data center land acquisition and construction announcements, with estimated commercial operation dates falling between 2024 and 2035. At a global level, this represents roughly 40% of total data center announcements as of 2023. Domestically, data centers are poised to require between 395 and 660 terawatt-hours (TWh) of power by 2035, representing at least 10% of current demand. The surge in announcements is driven by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies from leading tech firms, alongside continued growth in cloud computing services.
Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.605 billion barrels on February 21, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were down 2.2 million barrels week on week and up 16.6 million barrels year on year, the report outlined.
The tariffs threaten to disrupt North America’s tightly integrated oil industry and raise demand for US crude to backfill any Canadian or Mexican barrels that are diverted elsewhere to avoid the levies. Still, the tariffs’ effects may be blunted by the fact that many American refineries were built to handle those countries’ heavy crudes, rather than domestically produced light oil, leaving them limited options for substitution. The US receives about about 4 million barrels a day from Canada and about 400,000 barrels a day from Mexico.
Seadrill Limited has reported a fourth-quarter 2024 net income of $101 million, well over the $32 million for the previous quarter. Fourth-quarter operating revenues totaled $289 million, down 18 percent from $354 million for the prior quarter primarily due to lower contract revenues.
“Crude production, not including condensates, is at the lowest levels since 1979, before Pemex exploited its massive oil deposits. It’s at rock bottom,” said Oscar Ocampo, an energy analyst at the nonprofit Mexican Institute for Competitiveness. “In refining, the operational losses they’re delivering are massive. The more they refine, the more money they lose.”
The companies said, “Through their innovative efforts and focus on efficient practices, these industry leaders aim to shorten the concept-to-electron timeline, ensuring that electricity generation capacity is quickly brought online to help meet demand”.