Chinese Hold US Treas Bar Chart

U.S.-China Trade War: Who will Win?

One of Trump’s campaign platforms was that the U.S. wasn’t getting fair deals in international trade. His two biggest examples were NAFTA (trade with Canada and Mexico) and trade with China. And in 2018 the media panicked and drove the markets down anticipating that Trump would somehow destroy all trade and the U.S. would plunge the world into another depression. Then in  November 2018 NAFTA (North American Free Trade) was replaced by USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement) which included  new protections for U.S. intellectual property, Digital Trade, Anti-corruption, and Good Regulatory Practices. It also included provisions “Creating a more level playing field for American workers, including improved rules of origin for automobiles, trucks, other products, and disciplines on currency manipulation.”And now six months later the Trump administration is taking on China. But China is not Mexico and it has a lot more clout so where does the U.S. stand in this fight? 

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Is Saudi Arabia Still an 800 Pound Gorilla

Almost everyone has heard the old joke, “Where does an 800 pound Gorilla sleep?” The answer of course is, “Anywhere he wants to”.  For most of the last century Saudi Arabia has been the 800 pound gorilla of the oil industry. But recently people have begun wondering whether Saudi Arabia is losing some clout. In today’s article Tsvetana Paraskova of Oilprice.com will look at just where Saudi Arabia stands.

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Oil & Chemicals

Merger Mania: The World’s Largest Oil Company And Petrochemical Company Merge

In the following article from  OilPrice.com we see a major merger in the works to expand Saudi Aramco from just energy into chemical products. In previous articles we’ve discussed the possibility that Saudi Arabia is looking for alternative revenue streams as the world shifts toward renewable energy. 

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Oil Fallen

The $32 Trillion Push To Disrupt The Entire Oil Industry

Global oil and gas companies are increasingly facing an uphill battle as global warming policies are taking their toll. Most analysts and market watchers are focusing on peak oil demand scenarios, but the reality could be much darker. International oil companies (IOCs) are likely to face a Black Swan scenario, which could end up being a boon for state-owned oil companies (NOCs).

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Electricity Production Capacity Changes in 2019

Renewable Energy Trends in 2019

According to a new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2019 will be a good year for renewables. A whopping 46% of new electricity production will come from Wind power and 18% will come from Solar Photovoltaic power with the remaining increase coming from clean burning Natural Gas for a total increase in generating capacity of 24 gigawatts (GW). On the other hand, 8 gigawatts (GW) of electrical generating capacity will be retired this year 53% of that will be coal fired, 27% natural gas and 18% will be nuclear powered plants.

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Drilling Zones

Huge Backlog Could Trigger New Wave Of Shale Oil

Why would a company spend millions of dollars to drill an oil well and then not finish it? There are a couple of  reasons. Thanks to rapid advancements in drilling technology shale oil wells can actually be drilled faster than they can be completed. This can result in a high inventory of uncompleted wells called “drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs)”.  But when the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) counts DUCs they don’t count the recently completed ones to allow time for completion.

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China Vanadium Battery Factory

Move Aside Lithium – Vanadium Is The New Super-Metal

The lithium ride was a great one. Cobalt, too. All they needed was their Elon Musk moment, which came in the form of the Nevada battery gigafactory. The next Elon Musk moment won’t be about lithium at all—or even cobalt. It will be for an element that takes everything electric to its revolutionary finish line: Vanadium.

Move Aside Lithium – Vanadium Is The New Super-Metal Read More »

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