Update On That OPEC Production Cut (Wink, Wink) -- July 7, 2017

We'll be off the net for awhile -- traveling. But we leave you with this:

July 7, 2017: oil prices plunge 3% as signs of oversupplied market persist.

The S&P 500 energy index sinks to its lowest level since April 2016, with U.S. crude oil now -2.9% to $44.20/bbl following EIA data that showed continued strength in U.S. oil production in the final week of June just as OPEC exports hit a 2017 high, casting doubt over efforts by producers to curb oversupply.

Ah, yes, OPEC exports hit a 2017 high, "casting doubt over efforts by producers to curb oversupply."

Sort of reminds  me of this once said by a disbarred president: "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

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"We Can't Just Drill Our Way To Lower Gasoline Prices"

-- President Barack Obama, 2012

From the EIA this past week:

The energy component of the Standard and Poor’s Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) fell 11% during the first half of 2017, the largest decline for any commodity group in the index.

Other components of the index—livestock, industrial metals, precious metals, and agriculture—had end-of-June prices that were higher than at the beginning of the year. Supply-side developments unique to energy commodities likely contributed to the divergence.

Because two major crude oil price benchmarks, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent, account for 70% of the weighting in the S&P GSCI energy index, the energy index tends to follow major price movements in the crude oil market. During the first half of 2017, WTI crude oil prices declined by 12%, while Brent prices fell 14%. --- EIA