Valero Energy has just announced it is shutting down its Delaware City Refinery.  This is a major news announcement because refiners should be seen as a canary in the coalmine for end-user demand and Valero is one company in the oil patch which has been loath to cut workers to improve the bottom line. This [...]

This is a crucial question because Devon Energy, the Oklahoma-based independent oil and natural gas producer has just decided to put billion of dollars in Deep sea Gulf of Mexico assets on the market.
Canada’s National Post reported:
Devon Energy Corp. hopes to raise up to US$7.5-billion from the sale of its Gulf of Mexico and international [...]

This comes from the Guardian (hat tip Lee):
The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.
The senior official claims the US has played an influential [...]

This comes via the FT:
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday decided to drop the widely used West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a serious blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The decision by the world’s biggest oil exporter could encourage other producers to abandon the benchmark and threatens the [...]

Refining margins have been absolutely decimated, especially for refiners of heavy, sour crude like Valero Energy (VLO) and Tesoro Petroleum (TSO).  This is taking a toll on profits in the oil and gas sector, with both oil majors highly leveraged to downstream operations like ConocoPhillips (COP) and independent refining outfits showing steep falloffs in operating [...]

Periodically, I feature the work of Niels Jensen, chief executive partner of London-based Absolute Return Partners.  His latest monthly missive is on dwindling energy supplies – known as Peak Oil, something I have talked about before.
The parabolic rise and collapse in oil prices we saw last year was not just about speculation, it was [...]

This comes via the Financial Post:
Oil rose above US$74 a barrel on Monday, extending its rally to trade near a 10-month high, on optimism that an economic recovery will spur a rebound in energy demand.
A string of positive economic data from various countries and rallying stock markets helped lift oil prices by 9.5% last week. [...]

When news first broke regarding the ethnic tensions and violence in Xinjiang, China, I was not familiar with the situation there.  I have gotten up to speed and wanted to post a few videos and links for you on the situation there.
Wikipedia (population nearly 20 million):
Xinjiang … is an autonomous region (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) [...]

You have probably heard the stories about China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) bidding for Repsol YP’F’s Argentine assets in a quest for more natural resources for China. Well, apparently, the Chinese want a lot more than just Argentina; they want the whole of Repsol’s Latin American asset base.
The Chinese have been buying up [...]

During Alan Greenspan’s tenure at the helm of the Federal Reserve, he was often accused of using monetary policy to target asset markets so as to keep the party going.  In short, Alan Greenspan was seen by many, including myself, as the bubble blower-in-chief. All of this came to an end with the very hard [...]