"Focus On Fracking" -- September 12, 2021

Link here.

The lede:

Natural gas prices at a 7 1/2 year high; US crude supplies at a 23 month low, gasoline supplies at a 22 month low.

Natural gas prices are surging; one wonders what's in store for crude oil:

• pundits have suggested there's been a "deficit" in production for quite some time;
• OPEC+ and US shale operators have hesitated to "open" the spigots
• we're getting ready to see China start importing more crude oil
• gasoline demand last week set a record
• >65% of the Gulf of Mexico is still shut in
• the strength of the dollar has been in a trading range for quite some time
• the global economy is slowly but surely coming out of the pandemic

Remind me of this tweet ...  link here. 

You know, this is quite interesting ... for those paying attention, we've been here before. Let's just say, oil goes to three-figures/bbl. What happens next? Hint: we've been here before: windfall profits tax.

Europe's energy crunch: it's just beginning folks. It's barely autumn. Groningen is closing. Russia won't be able to keep up even if it wanted to. Link here.

Lead story over at The WSJ tomorrow: natural-gas market conditions look unnatural. Storage levels of the fuel look rather thin globally, while prices have surged. A cold winter in parts of the world could send prices even higher. Link here. 

I'm beginning to think that the February, 2021, "Texas Freeze," was a wake-up call. Europe didn't answer the phone. 

October 31, 2021: that's the date the headlines scream -- Arctic blast. Natural gas critical. A reader told me to post that.