What will 2020 mean for oil and gas exploration in Oklahoma and the rest of the U.S.?
Speculators believe those shale E and Ps will have a more difficult time obtaining financing for their exploration, whether it’s in the STACK, the SCOOP, the Permian Basin or the Bakkens of North Dakota. Investors have lost interest and capital markets are expected to be unfriendly. As a result, supply growth in the early stages of 2020 will slow.
Part of the issue is the fact that the shale explosion provided more crude oil than demand could handle across the U.S., thus resulting in growing supply surpluses.
Analysts believe the new year will possibly result in the largest supply increase in oil from non-OPEC countries outside the U.S. in the past 15 years, possibly reaching 820,000 bpd. Supply is still growing faster than demand. The International Energy Agency predicts the oil market surplus could be nearly 0.7 million barrels a day, just in the first quarter of 2020 and even with the oil cuts of 500,000 bpd announced by OPEC.