The great condensate con: Is the oil glut just about oil?

My favorite Texas oilman Jeffrey Brown is pointing out to everyone who will listen that the supposed oversupply of crude oil isn’t quite what it seems. Yes, there is a large overhang of excess oil in the market. But how much of that oversupply is honest-to-god oil and how much is so-called lease condensate which gets carelessly lumped in with crude oil? And, why is this important to understanding the true state of world oil supplies?

Cheap oil, complexity and counterintuitive conclusions

The chief intellectual challenge of our age is that we live in complex systems, but we do not understand complexity. How can cheap oil be a harbinger of future supply problems in the oil market? Here’s where complexity, history and subtle thinking all have to combine at just the right intellectual temperature to reveal the answer.

Peak oil notes – April 11

A midweek update. Oil futures in NY rebounded smartly this week retracing about half of the losses sustained during last week’s selloff. London’s Brent crude has been slower to rebound permitting the WTI-Brent spread to close still further to $11.15, the smallest since last June. Much of the impetus for the price rebound came from surging equity markets which saw the S&P setting a new high on Wednesday.