Latest news with #PickeringEnergyPartners
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In the reeling energy sector, an unexpected OPEC production hike plus tariff fears send oil prices plunging 7%
President Trump's sweeping tariffs combined with OPEC's unexpectedly large production hike are combining to trigger a 'double whammy' on the oil and gas sector, resulting in crude prices tumbling and fears rising of lower energy demand in an economic slowdown. The tariffs, which did exclude oil and fuel imports, are still expected to increase equipment and supply costs for energy production, construction and transportation, while potentially creating weaker global energy demand. The decision from key OPEC nations and allies, especially Saudi Arabia and Russia, to triple their expected production increase in May adds extra supplies on top of existing recession fears. The coincidentally joint announcements from the White House and OPEC caused oil prices to plunge by nearly 7% on April 3 with the U.S. benchmark for oil —front-month NYMEX WTI—hovering just above $66 per barrel, well down from the nearly $78 per barrel when Donald Trump took office in January. 'The world got more complicated, and the outlook is cloudier,' said energy forecaster Dan Pickering, founder and chief and investment officer for Pickering Energy Partners. 'It's a double whammy because you have OPEC boosting supply, which I think was dangerous to start with, but now you have this issue of tariffs being higher or worse than expected,' Pickering said. While the Trump administration is making it easier for the oil and gas industry to do business by easing environmental regulations and fast-tracking permitting, the sector is clearly somewhat 'disgruntled' with the president now, Pickering said. 'The bloom is off the rose. Now we have to see if the ease of doing business can help offset some of the pain of lower prices,' Pickering said. 'I wouldn't call the energy industry happy right now, but not completely surprised. This was a risk. Oil prices were better under Obama and Biden than they were under Bush and Trump. The Republicans make it easier to do business, but prices have been lower during their regimes.' Still, the lobbying American Petroleum Institute chose to focus instead on what Trump didn't do on energy imports. 'We welcome President Trump's decision to exclude oil and natural gas from new tariffs, underscoring the complexity of integrated global energy markets and the importance of America's role as a net energy exporter,' API said in a statement. During late Wall Street trading April 3, the stocks of Big Oil giants such as Chevron and BP were down 5.5% and 6.8% respectively, while independent U.S. oil producers fell more sharply, such as ConocoPhillips at nearly 9% and Occidental Petroleum at more than 10%. Many smaller producers, including Devon Energy and Diamondback Energy, were down 11% or more on the day. The announcement from the so-called OPEC+ group of key OPEC members plus Russia, Kazakhstan and Oman would add 411,000 barrels per day of additional crude oil to global markets starting in May at a time when supply-and-demand fundamentals were already trending weaker. Still, some of this may be overstated because Saudi Arabia and others are reacting to rising domestic power demand during the upcoming summer months in their countries, and they are not necessarily aspiring to flood the global market in an arms race, said Matt Reed, energy analyst and vice president for Foreign Reports. 'OPEC+ has its own sensible reasons for producing more sooner,' Reed said. 'Unfortunately for them, they couldn't put this decision off much longer because they need to set prices and line up sales for next month. 'It's just bad luck this decision coincided with Trump's slapdash tariff announcement.' Pickering certainly agreed on the not-so-great luck. 'The timing is terrible and now it's more terrible.' 'Forget all the tariff noise. Just on supply and demand, somebody is going to have to blink, or prices are going to $50 [per barrel],' Pickering said, citing a price point where the industry could fall below profitability and drastically reduce activity further. Already, dealmaking will come to a temporary standstill and budgets will be lowered accordingly, he said. Trump may need to impose greater sanctions on Iranian oil to help balance supply and demand, he added. 'If we don't see that, it's going to get ugly, or uglier.' OPEC may be thinking of both rising domestic demand and potential U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil in its decision, said Rystad Energy Chief Economist Claudio Galimberti. "OPEC may be preparing the groundwork," Galimberti said. "Trump is still likely to impose maximum pressure on Iran." And, while the ultimate results of the tariffs are unknown, he said, the world is now facing a new world order. 'One thing is already clear: the global trading order based on the U.S. as the consumer and borrower of last resort is ending, and the world's economic and energy system will need to adapt to a new emerging order, whose shape and form we don't yet know,' Galimberti said. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Iraqi News
11-03-2025
- Business
- Iraqi News
Trump's Energy Secretary vows reversal of Biden climate policies
Houston – The US Energy Secretary vowed Monday to reset federal energy policy to favor fossil fuels and deprioritize climate change as industry leaders gathered at their biggest event since President Donald Trump returned to office. In the conference's opening session, Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited the Trump administration's moves to cut red tape delaying oil projects and promote liquefied natural gas exports (LNG) as examples of a pivot away from policies pursued under former president Joe Biden. 'The Trump administration will end the Biden administration's irrational quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens,' Wright told a packed auditorium for the annual Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) conference. Since returning to Washington less than two months ago, Trump and his team have overhauled the existing economic order at a dizzying pace, launching trade wars against allies and hollowing government agencies the president and his allies dislike. Trump made energy policy a central part of his agenda with his day-one 'Unleashing American Energy' executive order, promising during his inaugural address to 'end the Green New Deal' in favor of 'that liquid gold under our feet.' Environmentalists have criticized these shifts as leaving the world vulnerable to catastrophic climate change. Wright's 'speech made clear that he and the rest of the Trump administration are ready to sacrifice our communities and climate for the profits of the fossil fuel industry,' said Allie Rosenbluth, US campaign manager for Oil Change International, which planned a rally in downtown Houston outside the CERA event. – How much change ahead? – Energy played a key supporting role in Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, in which he pointed to higher gasoline prices as a reason more production was needed, embodied by his slogan: 'Drill, Baby, Drill.' Trump's January 20 executive order represents a potentially wide-ranging attack on tax incentives which had been embraced by energy companies to advance billions of dollars of energy transition projects. These projects were connected to laws enacted during Biden's presidency to mitigate climate change. Some pundits think Trump will stop short of actions canceling existing projects where workers have been hired, including many in conservative districts. But the abrupt shift from the climate-focused Biden to Trump likely 'turns 2025 into a paralyzed year where folks are hesitant to push on any kind of decarbonization,' said Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners, a Houston advisory and investment firm. Wright described his approach as an 'all the above' stance that can include renewable energy, although he told a press conference after the address that offshore wind projects were a waste of money that are 'very unpopular' with communities. At an event last week in Louisiana, Wright touted an announcement by Venture Global of an $18 billion expansion of a liquefied natural gas export facility, highlighting Trump's reversal of a Biden freeze on permitting new LNG export capacity. Trump has ridiculed the environmental concerns at the center of Biden's policy, championing LNG exports as a way to strengthen America's ties with energy importing countries. But there has been widespread skepticism about Trump's message urging the industry to significantly boost oil and gas drilling in order to lift output and lower energy prices. Wall Street has also signaled a clear preference for robust industry profits that can continue to allow for dividends and stock buybacks. – Questions for Europe – At CERA, European officials will meet on panels to discuss Europe at a crossroads after shifting away from Russian energy supplies. In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US LNG 'played a super important role' for Europe as the continent sought to lessen its dependence on Russian gas, said Jonathan Elkind, a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. However, Trump's realignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin has forced European leaders to reckon with the system's long-term viability. For the near future, including at CERA, Elkind expects European officials to continue to speak optimistically of the prospects for more US LNG. But 'at the back of their mind… it's pretty hard to tell whether Donald Trump is friend or foe and that's a shocking thing to say after 70 years of a close alliance,' Elkind said.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Energy Secretary vows reversal of Biden climate policies
The US Energy Secretary vowed Monday to reset federal energy policy to favor fossil fuels and deprioritize climate change as industry leaders gathered at their biggest event since President Donald Trump returned to office. In the conference's opening session, Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited the Trump administration's moves to cut red tape delaying oil projects and promote liquefied natural gas exports (LNG) as examples of a pivot away from policies pursued under former president Joe Biden. "The Trump administration will end the Biden administration's irrational quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens," Wright told a packed auditorium for the annual Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) conference. Since returning to Washington less than two months ago, Trump and his team have overhauled the existing economic order at a dizzying pace, launching trade wars against allies and hollowing government agencies the president and his allies dislike. Trump made energy policy a central part of his agenda with his day-one "Unleashing American Energy" executive order, promising during his inaugural address to "end the Green New Deal" in favor of "that liquid gold under our feet." Environmentalists have criticized these shifts as leaving the world vulnerable to catastrophic climate change. Wright's "speech made clear that he and the rest of the Trump administration are ready to sacrifice our communities and climate for the profits of the fossil fuel industry," said Allie Rosenbluth, US campaign manager for Oil Change International, which planned a rally in downtown Houston outside the CERA event. - How much change ahead? - Energy played a key supporting role in Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, in which he pointed to higher gasoline prices as a reason more production was needed, embodied by his slogan: "Drill, Baby, Drill." Trump's January 20 executive order represents a potentially wide-ranging attack on tax incentives which had been embraced by energy companies to advance billions of dollars of energy transition projects. These projects were connected to laws enacted during Biden's presidency to mitigate climate change. Some pundits think Trump will stop short of actions canceling existing projects where workers have been hired, including many in conservative districts. But the abrupt shift from the climate-focused Biden to Trump likely "turns 2025 into a paralyzed year where folks are hesitant to push on any kind of decarbonization," said Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners, a Houston advisory and investment firm. Wright described his approach as an "all the above" stance that can include renewable energy, although he told a press conference after the address that offshore wind projects were a waste of money that are "very unpopular" with communities. At an event last week in Louisiana, Wright touted an announcement by Venture Global of an $18 billion expansion of a liquefied natural gas export facility, highlighting Trump's reversal of a Biden freeze on permitting new LNG export capacity. Trump has ridiculed the environmental concerns at the center of Biden's policy, championing LNG exports as a way to strengthen America's ties with energy importing countries. But there has been widespread skepticism about Trump's message urging the industry to significantly boost oil and gas drilling in order to lift output and lower energy prices. Wall Street has also signaled a clear preference for robust industry profits that can continue to allow for dividends and stock buybacks. - Questions for Europe - At CERA, European officials will meet on panels to discuss Europe at a crossroads after shifting away from Russian energy supplies. In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US LNG "played a super important role" for Europe as the continent sought to lessen its dependence on Russian gas, said Jonathan Elkind, a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. However, Trump's realignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin has forced European leaders to reckon with the system's long-term viability. For the near future, including at CERA, Elkind expects European officials to continue to speak optimistically of the prospects for more US LNG. But "at the back of their mind... it's pretty hard to tell whether Donald Trump is friend or foe and that's a shocking thing to say after 70 years of a close alliance," Elkind said. jmb/jgc
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Energy industry meets after Trump tears up US green agenda
Top energy industry figures converge on Houston this week for their biggest gathering since Donald Trump returned to the White House to champion fossil fuels and undo Joe Biden's climate legacy. The president himself won't appear at the annual Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) conference, but Trump appointees are expected to talk up the Republican's petroleum-led program as embodied by the slogan: "Drill Baby Drill." Since returning to Washington less than two months ago, Trump and his team have laid siege to the existing economic order at a dizzying pace, launching trade wars against allies and neutering government agencies the president and his libertarian allies dislike. Trump made energy central to his agenda with his day-one "Unleashing American Energy" executive order, vowing during his inaugural address to "end the Green New Deal" in favor of "that liquid gold under our feet." Trump's January 20 executive order represents a potentially wide-ranging attack on tax incentives embraced by energy companies to advance billions of dollars of energy transition projects connected to laws enacted during Biden's presidency to mitigate climate change. Some pundits think Trump will stop short of actions canceling existing projects, where workers have been hired, including many in Republican regions. But the abrupt shift to Trump from the climate-focused Biden likely "turns 2025 into a paralyzed year where folks are hesitant to push on any kind of decarbonization," said Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners, a Houston advisory and investment firm. - More drilling? - The schedule for the five-day Houston CERA gathering lists three top Trump appointees, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who will open the proceedings on Monday morning. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin are slated to speak later in the week. Wright, an energy industry entrepreneur and executive, and Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, appeared together last week to tout an announcement by Venture Global of an $18 billion expansion of a liquefied natural gas export facility in Louisiana. The event highlighted Trump's reversal of a Biden freeze on permitting new LNG export capacity. Trump has ridiculed the environmental concerns at the center of Biden's policy, championing LNG exports as a way to strengthen America's ties with energy importing countries, as well as a way to boost the US exploration and production industry. But there has been widespread skepticism about Trump's message urging the industry to significantly boost oil and gas drilling in order to lift output and lower energy prices. Wall Street has signaled a clear preference for robust industry profits that can continue to allow for dividends and share repurchases. Besides the Trump officials, other speakers include CEOs from Chevron, Shell, Saudi Aramco and other oil giants; senior government officials from energy importers like India and exporters like Libya; top power and tech industry executives. There are panels on low-carbon technologies, the electricity supply challenge to support artificial intelligence research, OPEC's influence in setting oil prices and the shifting geopolitics around energy and international trade. - Questions for Europe - European officials are to appear on panels focused on Europe at a crossroads after shifting from Russian supplies and the role of energy in the future of the continent's security. In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US LNG "played a super-important role" for Europe as the continent sought to lessen its dependence on Russian gas, said Jonathan Elkind, a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. But European leaders have been forced to reckon with the current state of the transatlantic alliance in light of Trump's alignment with Russian President Vladimir Putin and tensions with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. Whether a Russia-Ukraine peace deal might lead to a restoration of some Russian natural gas exports to Europe remains an open question. In the short run, including at CERA, Elkind expects European officials to continue to speak optimistically of the prospects for more US LNG. But "at the back of their mind... it's pretty hard to tell whether Donald Trump is friend or foe and that's a shocking thing to say after 70 years of a close alliance," Elkind said. jmb/dc
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Energy execs headline Water in Energy Conference
Mar. 3—The Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference (PBWIEC), hosted by the Shepperd Leadership Institute at the University of Texas Permian Basin, has announced a stellar lineup of keynote speakers for its 2025 event: Colin P. Fenton, Managing Partner at 22V Research; Dan Pickering, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Pickering Energy Partners; and David Capobianco, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner at Five Point Energy. Scheduled for March 4 — 6 at the Barbara and George H.W. Bush Convention Center in Midland, the PBWIEC will bring together thought leaders and decision-makers to explore innovative solutions at the critical intersection of water and energy in the world's most prolific energy-producing region. Colin P. Fenton is a globally recognized expert in energy economics and market strategy. As Managing Partner of 22V Research, his insights into resource markets have shaped strategies for industry leaders and policymakers worldwide. Dan Pickering, a visionary in energy investment, leads Pickering Energy Partners with a commitment to innovation and sustainable growth. With decades of experience, Pickering is known for advancing cutting-edge solutions in the evolving energy landscape. David Capobianco heads Five Point Energy, overseeing one of the leading private equity firms focused on midstream water solutions. His expertise in infrastructure and resource management positions him as a trailblazer in sustainable water and energy strategies. Under the theme "Innovating Solutions for Water and Energy," the 2025 PBWIEC will tackle pressing global challenges, from resource sustainability to emerging technologies. Attendees will gain insights from keynote presentations, expert panels, and interactive sessions designed to foster collaboration across industries. The Permian Basin is at the epicenter of the global energy industry, uniquely positioned to lead transformative solutions for water and energy management. The PBWIEC provides a national stage for professionals, policymakers, and innovators to connect, share insights, and shape the future of these interdependent sectors. Registration for the conference is still open. Industry leaders, researchers, and policymakers are encouraged to secure their spots. Visit for more information regarding registration, sponsorship opportunities, speakers and more. Hosted by The University of Texas Permian Basin, the Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference fosters collaboration among energy and water professionals to address critical challenges and drive innovation. Proceeds from the conference directly support academic scholarships, research initiatives, student development and leadership programs. For more information on the 2025 PBWIEC and registration details, please visit
