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Oil Industry Leaders See Tough Times Ahead

By Alex Mills

 

July 2, 2020

Most oil company leaders, who traditionally are very optimistic, have a pessimistic opinion about the future, according to a recent survey by the Dallas office of the Federal Reserve System. The survey “reveals a very somber and wary mindset by U.S. producers toward the upstream oil and gas (O&G) market.”

The cause of the negative opinions begins with exceptionally low prices for crude oil and natural gas that closed at a negative $37 per barrel for oil on April 20 and natural gas prices went into negative territory on several occasions on the futures market at some locations.

Oil prices have rebounded to a positive $39 on Wednesday. Natural gas price at Henry Hub was $1.671 down from $2.240 a year ago.

However, an oversupply of petroleum products still exist, which is an indication that prices will remain soft.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a decline of crude oil inventories of 7 million barrels this week to 533 million barrels, which was only the third week inventories have declined in the last 20 weeks. Inventories set a record the previous week at 540 million barrels….