Saudi Arabia to lower oil prices, the houston boom is over

US crude oil inventories are approaching record highs. This is essentially strike one. Watching the Iraq central government backdown from its resistance against Kurdish oil sales to Turkey is the second.

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCESTUS1&f=W

I was referring to the Saudi king. Apparently he died yesterday. And yes the boom will return, and I happen to work in natural gas (but I don't assume that I'm somehow protected).

 

Does this mean Omri Casspi is taking over?

 

The Port of Houston needs to steer away from being so heavily commodity based and switch to a more container based port to compete with the West Coast ports after the Panama Canal expansion. There have been a few new distribution centers built.

 

No, ISIS is.

 

Wasn't there a massive container facility built in Baycliff several years back? I seem to remember that the Chron ran a story after its construction that said it will likely not be used to full capacity to a couple decades.

 

Was just about to post this, in addition to the huge container docks near the cruise terminal in La Porte. Furthermore, the bulk of the Ship Channel is lined by refineries and chem plants. It's the largest petrochemical corridor in the world.

 

There have been improvements, but there needs to be a lot more. The majority of the PoH traffic is from commodities. It does carry the vast majority of the Gulf Coast container traffic already. The poh just needs to continue capitalizing on that and take traffic away from east coast ports like Savannah, plus the West Coast (which have been seeing some great years).

 

I think sometimes people that live in Texas and Houston especially, just do not realize how strontg their economy, how diverse it is and just how healthy it is. It is an 800 pound gorilla.

Having spent substantial amounts of time in in Chicago, Ireland, Spain, Ohio and many other places... I can say that the health of the economy in Texas, and Houston especially is exceptionally strong. Sure it will have fluctuations, but it is the envy of most.

 

ConocoPhillips?

 

If you're laid off do you get some sort of severence package to help you out?

 

I will if/when it happens. Something like 60 days of pay after getting laid off + one month severance for each year worked (up to 16 years). And 2 years and 1 day, for example, rounds up to 3 years worked and therefore 3 months severance.

Plus I'll get my bonus for 2014 in March all the same and will even get a (tiny) bonus for working the first quarter of 2015.

It's a delicate balancing act because I don't want to leave and pass up that money, but I don't want to stay just for that money and then not be able to find a job for 6+ months.

 

Anyone else see this interview this morning? Usually when people use the word "never" or "always" it's time to start thinking about betting the other direction....but this guy is a different kind of dude.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102363511?trknav=homestack:topnews:1

Prince Alwaleed: Oil will never see $100 again

he world will never again see the price of oil at $100 per barrel, one of Saudi Arabia's biggest investors told CNBC on Friday.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holdings, spoke with "Squawk on the Street" following the death of his uncle, King Abdullah. While he admitted that his country—which derives 90 percent of its budget from oil—is feeling the pain of the commodity's collapse, he predicted that Saudi Arabia would not be the first to blink.

He said that a "confluence of events" have led to the fall in oil's price, not—as some have suggested—a Saudi plot to harm America's revitalized energy industry.


"I can assure you that Saudi Arabia is not using the oil price right now to impact the fracking industry in the United States," he said, adding that "there's an oversupply and demand is not so high."

The lack of balance between oil's supply and demand means the road back to $60-$70 range will be "not that easy, not that quick," the prince said, adding that markets may not even have found the bottom yet.

Given this weakness in oil's price, Alwaleed admitted that the global strength of OPEC has weakened.

"I would not say that OPEC is dead, but I think the impact of OPEC as it was years ago is not the same for sure today," he said.
He added that "there's a game of who should cut production first" between members of the oil cartel and non-OPEC nations.

"Eventually there's no doubt that some countries have to blink and reduce their production. ... I don't see Saudi Arabia or the OPEC countries blinking," he said.

Alwaleed said he thought oil's price could lead to political turmoil in countries like Venezuela that depend so much on the commodity and "don't have a lot of extra wealth on the side for that rainy day"—unlike Saudi Arabia and its neighbors.

Weighing in on the global currency market, Alwaleed simply said "I'm a dollar man." As for equities, he said Kingdom Holdings will maintain its diversified strategy, but it is interested in some new company's like China's JD.com.

Following Abdullah's death, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz became king of the world's top oil exporter.

Salman is a reformer at heart, Alwaleed said, and the country will continue down the same paths of financial, social and political reform as during Abdullah's reign.

Reflecting on the political turmoil in neighboring Yemen, Alwaleed said the resignations of that country's prime minister and president means "clearly we have seen the hands of Iran infiltrating that country through its blatant and open support of the Houthis there."

He called it an "unfortunate situation" as Yemen's political vacuum could eventually be a "seat of trouble."

 

There's a Longshoreman dispute at the LA port. Not sure how that is a reflection of the Panama Canal expansion, or what the impacts are for the local here in Houston.

 

Yep, our CEO posted a video on Monday. I guess we'll wait and see who makes the cut!

 

It's like that guy was listening to me

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=9497256&postcount=555

We both said confluence too

 

The Fed has to cut back as well. It must fight against the phantom inflation from the 'natural' rate of unemployment. Just in time to take the bunch bowl away, this June they're gonna kick the E&Ps in the nuts.

 

Maybe I'm just a bad person, but I can't help but feel a bit smug when I see reports of thousands of layoffs at O&G companies.

I've been in the space business for 14 years, and in that time, have survived 6 rounds of major layoffs, due to a perpetually shrinking NASA budget, and seen our immediate workforce trimmed by 70 percent.

Meanwhile, most, not all, but most persons I've known working in O&G had a bit of an inflated opinion of themselves, driven in large part by utterly ridiculous salaries compared to their organizational usefulness.

Hope they saved some of those inflated salaries during the good years.

 

I completely agree. I have those who make 100k+ a year, driving 60k company vehicles and spending money like theyve won the lottery. And all they are is a glorified truck mechanic.

 

These people being laid off aren't the super rich - some may have had large salaries, others not. They're trying to make ends meet, just like you.
You're a pretty terrible person to get enjoyment out of some elses misfortune.

 

Someone sure sounds salty in here. Lol