Half of U.S. Fracking Industry Could Go Bankrupt as Oil Prices Continue to Fall

[KamaAina]

https://ecowatch.com/2016/01/18/fracking-industry-bankrupt/

So the slide continues with no end in sight. As expected this morning, the oil price has fallen below $28 a barrel on the back of the historic news over the weekend of sanctions being lifted on Iran....

The markets are spooked that the lifting of sanctions means the imminent introduction of half a million or so more barrels of oil per day from Iran into an already oversupplied market. The country has the world’s fourth largest reserves of oil....

Having limped along last year hoping for a rebound in prices this year, the industry is heading for deep trouble.

Last week, one analyst predicted that half of U.S. shale oil producers could go bankrupt before the oil price rebalances itself.

Call the frackers a

[FLPanhandle]

1. Low oil prices will also kill green energy companies

No way solar or other alternative energy solutions can be competitive with cheap oil.

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. Not necessarily

I heard an analyst say a few weeks ago that we will likely never see $100/bbl oil again as the costs of producing a solar panel and a wind turbine continues to fall


Once you install one of those devices the energy produced is virtually free.

No matter the cost of oil, you still have to get it out of the ground and move it before it can be used.

[Wounded Bear]

6. I'm hoping green energy has reached a tipping point...

We've experienced this several times. A spike in green energy purchases while prices are high, then magically oil prices drop and green falls off.

I'm hopeful the drop off in green is not significant this time as people start to realize what's really happening with the climate.

[zipplewrath]

14. Hoover Dam on line 1

A decade ago I might have understood this bit of hyperbole. Today I'm not so sure. Wind and solar still look pretty good, especially for replacing coal. There will always be a demand for "base load" and fossils will be hard to beat at that activity, especially with nuclear going nowhere fast. But at some locations, wind and solar will be well received.

[wilt the stilt]

2. this is Saudia Arabia's plan

they want to kill everyone.

[KamaAina]

3. So Saudi Arabia and Iran are in cahoots?

[wilt the stilt]

5. This is not my idea genius

look at any analysis of the oil situation and it gives this basic analysis. Saudia Arabia opened the spigot to kill fracking.

[Wounded Bear]

9. Well, it also hurts Iran...

after all these years they can finally sell their oil on the open market, and the market crashes.

Coincidence? Hmmmmm.

[jeff47]

8. Yep.

https://www.google.com/search?q=opec

They'll happily slaughter each other over religion, but they cooperate well when cash is involved.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. No. The Sauds right now are fine with everyone

pumping as much oil as they want. That includes the hated Shiite regime of Iran. Iran, coming out of the embargo is happy to sell into the global market at any almost any price.

Keep in mind that the Sauds are sitting on the cheapest to produce crude on the planet and they still have a vast supply. Irans oil isn't as cheap as the Sauds but they will make a profit at current rates.

It is the companies that invested in high extraction price oil, shale, fracking, deep sea, that are fucked. They were threatening the Sauds control of the market and are being punished for their behavior.

[Faux pas]

7. Kick!!!

[lame54]

10. Cheaper gas and less fracking assholes...

good news all around

[Jesus Malverde]

11. While I am no fan of fracking

They owe millions to the too big to fail banks. This could get ugly fast.

[progressoid]

17. Ugly indeed.

[threethirteen]

13. What about this article?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-16/exclusive-dallas-fed-quietly-suspends-energy-mark-market-tells-banks-not-force-shale

"Earlier this week, before first JPM and then Wells Fargo revealed that not all is well when it comes to bank energy loan exposure, a small Tulsa-based lender, BOK Financial, said that its fourth-quarter earnings would miss analysts’ expectations because its loan-loss provisions would be higher than expected as a result of a single unidentified energy-industry borrower."

I don't know the site, but the info seems in line with what is happening in the industry at the moment. But the info on the Fed's involvement I'm skeptical about.

[Triana]

15. Gee. What a shame.

[Ed Suspicious]

16. Good. Find something better to do.

[progressoid]

18. I foresee a bailout in the future.