Big Oil bets big on Permian growth

Big Oil bets big on Permian growth

Three things to start:

Welcome to another Thursday Energy Source.

Remember when Big Oil was holding fire on new oil supply? No longer — at least not in the Permian. Today’s first note looks at ExxonMobil’s and Chevron’s plans to increase supply in the world’s most prolific oilfield.

Our second note explains why they might want to do so. Part of it, is that Opec+ seems to have a spare capacity problem.

And as the Winter Olympics begin on Friday, if you think the skies above Beijing look clearer than usual, Data Drill offers one explanation: China has curbed production in the main steel provinces.

Last, can the people who financed the shale revolution pivot into energy transition? Maynard Holt — an investment banker who, as part of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co, was at the centre of the US oil surge — thinks so. Veriten, his new venture, describes itself as a “new platform for a changing energy world”. But it’s a for-profit group, not a think-tank.

Worse, says Holt, if policymakers get the transition wrong, the populist pushback against measures to mitigate climate change could be delayed by a decade. It’s an intriguing message from one of Houston’s biggest names, now putting more money