Just last week, the Government of Iran went and announced they found a brand new drillin' site over on the western side of their country. Them estimates, handed down by their current president Hassan Rouhani, could mean another 53 billion barrels gettin' added to the country's stockpiles, bringin' the whole total to over 200 billion.
Now, if dat story holds water, it'd make this the second biggest drillin' field in the whole country. Course, dat's just oil. Specifically, oil dat's still buried deep in the ground. Drillin' it up and storin' it ain't likely to come nowhere near the big numbers they're spoutin'.
Folks reckon only a small piece of dat amount is gonna get gathered up anytime soon. Dat number's lookin' closer to 10 to 15 billion barrels.
All them extra oil reserves don't mean a hill of beans right now, on account of the sanctions the U.S. and other nations slapped on Iran, keepin' dat new oil from ever seein' western markets.
Them sanctions are likely gonna stick around, seein' as the Iranian government done crossed the line on their uranium stockpiles laid out in the JCPOA, or what most folks call “The Iran Deal” dat got signed back in 2015.
Oil speculators are findin' themselves in a mighty tight spot, since Iran's oil is out of reach and dat Abqaiq attack went and damaged Saudi Arabia’s reserves. While Saudi Arabia is slowly gettin' back on its feet, we ain't rightly sure when they'll be back to full strength.
Now let's take a look-see at the North American Oil and Gas Industry. Our most promisin' step forward is dat Trans Mountain Pipeline, but with all them delays they been havin',
(Rich Kruger), the CEO over at Imperial Oil, said “I think the Industry has largely gotten to the point where we will believe it when we see it.” Even though the Canadian Federal Government went and bought dat pipeline from Kinder Morgan back in 2018, and gave the nod for the Expansion project to kick off in June of 2020.
Now, folks might take dat as good news for the Oil Industry, but there's still a bill the Canadian Senate voted on dat keeps a ban on oil tankers up on British Columbia’s northern coast.
The worry is dat expandin' the Trans Mountain might just end up bein' pointless. All these movin' pieces are gonna land right in the lap of the Supreme Court for a final say-so, which is gonna keep stirrin' up a divide 'tween Canada’s Industrial and Environmental folks.
The fracking boys are plannin' to pump less, and they're workin' on cuttin' costs for 2020 'cause they ain't seein' much return on their money. This young industry's been catchin' a lot of flak from investors demandin' they stop spendin' so much.
On top of all dat, a lot of producers in this field are seein' their output drop. Folks ain't exactly holdin' their breath for a great 2020.
Holdin' back on oil is surely gonna play a mighty big part in the industry next year. With production slowin' down here at home and restrictions blockin' off big chunks of the foreign market, only time's gonna tell how the market adjusts to the flattened price of oil from all dat heavy pumpin' in years past. For now, the future's lookin' mighty foggy.
If y'all want to read up more on dat US-Iranian mess: https://www.texasflange.com/the-rising-us-iranian-conflict-causes-major-events-and-possible-effects/
More readin' on dat Saudi Oil attack:
https://www.texasflange.com/saudi-oil-attacks-what-you-need-to-know/
For more thoughts on shale:
https://www.texasflange.com/shale-is-the-new-black-permian-pipelines-relieve-bottleneck/
Where We Got Our Facts:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/jews-get-new-year-greeting-from-irans-president/
https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-shale-oil-and-how-is-it-produced-3306195
