Hamm-handed

12 October 2017 By Lauren Silva Laughlin

Tycoon Harold Hamm says aggressive government forecasts skew where Texas crude trades. Inventories are falling, but it’s a weak trend. Shale momentum will be hard to stop and Shell’s electric-car bet sends a fresh signal on future demand. Expect about $50 a barrel to be the norm.

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Oct. 12 that domestic crude inventories fell 2.8 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 6, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Gasoline stockpiles were up. Total products supplied over the previous four weeks averaged over 20.2 million barrels per day, up 1.3 percent from the same period a year earlier.

On Oct. 11, the EIA projected U.S. crude production would average 9.2 million barrels per day in 2017 and 9.9 million barrels in 2018, surpassing the previous record of 9.6 million barrels in 1970. The 2017 estimates fell slightly from the previous month, but the forecast for 2018 was up 0.8 percent.

Continental Resources Chief Executive Harold Hamm said on Sept. 21 that the EIA’s predictions for U.S. oil production were “flat wrong.” Hamm told Bloomberg TV in an interview that the figures were skewing the price of West Texas Intermediate, which is now roughly $6 below the price for Brent Crude.

Royal Dutch Shell said on Oct. 12 it had agreed to buy NewMotion, one of Europe's largest electric-vehicle charging providers, for an undisclosed sum.

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