Oil & Energy
2023, Another Strong Year For Oil Industry
Last year was a good year for the oil industry. Despite predictions of its looming demise as renewable energy leads to electrification that in turn leads to the death of oil, fossil fuels were the stars of the year, with demand for all, including coal, notably rising.
Meanwhile, opposition to Big Oil grew louder and protests turned more extreme, with activists gluing themselves to streets and buildings, and vandalizing world-famous works of art in order to raise awareness of climate change.
Oblivious to this rise in the amount of activism, Big Oil went on to rake in record profits thanks to higher prices for the commodities it produces.
According to Reuters, Big Oil majors will report combined earnings of close to $200 billion for 2022, with many of the supermajors booking record quarterly profits during the year thanks to the combination of strong demand for energy and limited supply.
The industry also had a chance to reduce debt, thanks to the strong performance of its products last year.
Per Reuters, the combined debt of Big Oil has fallen to $100 billion, which is the lowest in 15 years and down by more than 50 percent from 2020, when it reached more than $270 billion as companies borrowed to survive.
But it’s not all smooth sailing from here on out. First, there is the windfall profit tax that the EU and the UK decided to impose on energy companies in order to generate some money for its energy aid programs.
Shell said it expected the effect of the UK and EU windfall taxes will cost it $2.4 billion. It also said it may have to reconsider investment plans for the North Sea in light of that hit.
Meanwhile, despite political opposition to developing more oil and gas reserves in the UK, more than 100 bids were submitted this month for new exploration in the basin.
French TotalEnergies also said it would take a substantial hit from windfall taxes in the UK and the EU. According to the supermajor, it would come in at about $2.1 billion. As a result, the company said it will reduce its investments in the North Sea by a quarter, noting that the levy did not provide for any adjustments in case oil and gas prices fell.
Meanwhile, oil and gas prices did fall. Right now, oil is trading at around the same level it was trading a year ago and natural gas prices have fallen substantially in both Europe and the United States—its biggest supplier.
“The energy industry operates in a cyclical market and is subject to volatile commodity prices,” Jean-Luc Guiziou, TotalEnergies’ British head of exploration and production, told the FT this month.
“We believe that the government should remain open to reviewing the energy profits levy if prices reduce before 2028.”
Exxon took it a step beyond criticism, filing alawsuit against the European Union to get it to drop the windfall tax. The company argued that the tax is counterproductive, would discourage investments and undermine investor confidence.
Yet Big Oil has some big investment plans, just not for Europe. Exxon and Chevron, per Reuters, plan to spend 10 percent more this year than they did last year, to the tune of a combined $41 billion.
BP will be spending more on its U.S. shale and Gulf of Mexico operations even though European supermajors as a whole are expected to be more cautious with their money because of the windfall taxes. But they will continue spending heavily on low-carbon projects.
“The European majors appear much more attractively valued than the U.S. majors on our estimates,” HSBC said in a recent note quoted by Reuters. It is among banks that predict stronger share performance for European Big Oil majors after last year U.S. supermajors ruled the stock market.
If investment in low-carbon projects is the guarantee for stronger share performance, then HSBC is right.
Indeed, pressure is growing on the oil industry to set itself more stringent emission-reduction targets and make stronger commitments to decarbonize.
This pressure is unlikely to let up this year as governments in the EU, the UK, and the U.S. double down on their climate change plans, too.
Chances are that 2023 will be another strong year for the oil industry simply because those companies came in strong into the new year and demand for oil and gas is not expected to fall—on the contrary.
The EU will need to buy more gas to refill its storage and it will continue using oil products that it no longer buys from Russia. China is reopening and most observers expect a rebound in oil and gas demand to come sooner rather than later. Even the U.S., for all its green ambitions, is unlikely to stop being the biggest consumer of oil in months. The immediate future of Big Oil is certainly bright.
Slav reports for Oilprice.com
The Federal Government has expressed optimism in attracting more investments by International Oil Companies (IOCs) into Nigeria to foster growth and sustainability in the energy sector.
This is as some IOCs, particularly Shell and TotalEnergies, had announced plans to divest some of their assets from the country.
Recall that Shell in January, 2024 had said it would sell the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) to Renaissance.
According to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, increasing investments by IOCs as well as boosting crude production to enhancing Nigeria’s position as a leading player in the global energy market, are the key objectives of the Government.
Lokpobiri emphasized the Ministry’s willingness to collaborate with State Governments, particularly Bayelsa State, in advancing energy sector transformation efforts.
The Minister, who stressed the importance of cooperation in achieving shared goals said, “we are open to partnerships with Bayelsa State Government for mutual progress”.
In response to Governor Douye Diri’s appeal for Ministry intervention in restoring the Atala Oil Field belonging to Bayelsa State, the Minister assured prompt attention to the matter.
He said, “We will look into the issue promptly and ensure fairness and equity in addressing state concerns”.
Lokpobiri explained that the Bayelsa State Governor, Douyi Diri’s visit reaffirmed the commitment of both the Federal and State Government’s readiness to work together towards a sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous energy future for Nigeria.
While speaking, Governor Diri commended the Minister for his remarkable performance in revitalisng the nation’s energy sector.
The Federal Government has assured investors in the nation’s gas sector of the security and safety of their investments.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, gave the assurance while hosting top officials of Shanghai Huayi Energy Chemical Company Group of China (HUAYI) and China Road and Bridge Corporation, who are strategic investors in Brass Methanol and Gas Hub Project in Bayelsa State.
The Minister in a statement stressed that Nigeria was open for investments and investors, insisting that present and prospective foreign investors have no need to entertain fear on the safety of their investment.
Describing the Brass project as one critical project of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, Ekpo said.
“The Federal Government is committed to developing Nigeria’s gas reserves through projects such as the Brass Methanol project, which presents an opportunity for the diversification of Nigeria’s economy.
“It is for this and other reasons that the project has been accorded the significant concessions (or support) that it enjoys from the government.
“Let me, therefore, assure you of the strong commitment of our government to the security and safety of yours and other investments as we have continually done for similar Chinese investments in Nigeria through the years”, he added.
Ekpo further tasked investors and contractors working on the project to double their efforts, saying, “I want to see this project running for the good of Nigeria and its investors”.
Earlier in his speech, Leader of the Chinese delegation, Mr Zheng Bi Jun, said the visit to the country was to carry out feasibility studies for investments in methanol projects.
On his part, the Managing Director of Brass Fertiliser and Petrochemical Ltd, Mr Ben Okoye, expressed optimism in partnering with genuine investors on the project.
Crude oil prices recently logged their second monthly gain in a row as OPEC+ extended their supply curb deal until the end of Q2 2024.
The gains have been considerable, with WTI adding about $7 per barrel over the month of February.
Yet a lot of analysts remain bearish about the commodity’s prospects. In fact, they believe that there is enough oil supply globally to keep Brent around $81 this year and WTI at some $76.50, according to a Reuters poll.
Yet, like last year in U.S. shale showed, there is always the possibility of a major surprise.
According to the respondents in that poll, what’s keeping prices tame is, first, the fact that the Red Sea crisis has not yet affected oil shipments in the region, thanks to alternative routes.
The second reason cited by the analysts is OPEC+ spare capacity, which has increased, thanks to the cuts.
“Spare capacity has reached a multi-year high, which will keep overall market sentiment under pressure over the coming months”, senior analyst, Florian Grunberger, told Reuters.
The perception of ample spare capacity is definitely one factor keeping traders and analysts bearish as they assume this capacity would be put into operation as soon as the market needs it. This may well be an incorrect assumption.
Saudi Arabia and OPEC have given multiple signs that they would only release more production if prices are to their liking, and if cuts are getting extended, then current prices are not to OPEC’s liking yet.
There is more, too. The Saudis, which are cutting the most and have the greatest spare capacity at around 3 million barrels daily right now, are acutely aware that the moment they release additional supply, prices will plunge.
Therefore, the chance of Saudi cuts being reversed anytime soon is pretty slim.
Then there is the U.S. oil production factor. Last year, analysts expected modest output additions from the shale patch because the rig count remained consistently lower than what it was during the strongest shale boom years.
That assumption proved wrong as drillers made substantial gains in well productivity that pushed total production to yet another record.
Perhaps a bit oddly, analysts are once again making a bold assumption for this year: that the productivity gains will continue at the same rate this year as well.
The Energy Information Administration disagrees. In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, the authority estimated that U.S. oil output had reached a record high of 13.3 million barrels daily that in January fell to 12.6 million bpd due to harsh winter weather.
For the rest of the year, however, the EIA has forecast a production level remaining around the December record, which will only be broken in February 2025.
Oil demand, meanwhile, will be growing. Wood Mackenzie recently predicted 2024 demand growth at 1.9 million barrels daily.
OPEC sees this year’s demand growth at 2.25 million barrels daily. The IEA is, as usual, the most modest in its expectations, seeing 2024 demand for oil grow by 1.2 million bpd.
With OPEC+ keeping a lid on production and U.S. production remaining largely flat on 2023, if the EIA is correct, a tightening of the supply situation is only a matter of time. Indeed, some are predicting that already.
Natural resource-focused investors Goehring and Rozencwajg recently released their latest market outlook, in which they warned that the oil market may already be in a structural deficit, to manifest later this year.
They also noted a change in the methodology that the EIA uses to estimate oil production, which may well have led to a serious overestimation of production growth.
The discrepancy between actual and reported production, Goehring and Rozencwajg said, could be so significant that the EIA may be estimating growth where there’s a production decline.
So, on the one hand, some pretty important assumptions are being made about demand, namely, that it will grow more slowly this year than it did last year.
This assumption is based on another one, by the way, and this is the assumption that EV sales will rise as strongly as they did last year, when they failed to make a dent in oil demand growth, and kill some oil demand.
On the other hand, there is the assumption that U.S. drillers will keep drilling like they did last year. What would motivate such a development is unclear, besides the expectation that Europe will take in even more U.S. crude this year than it already is.
This is a much safer assumption than the one about demand, by the way. And yet, there are indications from the U.S. oil industry that there will be no pumping at will this year. There will be more production discipline.
Predicting oil prices accurately, even over the shortest of periods, is as safe as flipping a coin. With the number of variables at play at any moment, accurate predictions are usually little more than a fluke, especially when perceptions play such an outsized role in price movements.
One thing is for sure, though. There may be surprises this year in oil.
lrina Slav
Slav writes for Oilprice.com.
