Black gold

[PurpleGorilla]

I think we will see $35 maybe even $30. Not a time to buy oil shares IMHO.

[BlasterBates]

Or maybe $45, and then you've missed the boat.

You see this is the point you can't call the bottom. So what you do is you buy tranches.

When the stock market goes down 10-20% you buy, often it pops back up again, if it drops a further 10-20% you buy more etc.

That's how you make money on the stock market.

You don't sit there waiting for a crash, otherwise you might end up feeling very frustrated waiting 10 years for the crash to arrive, and in the meantime your cash has been erroded.

Basically you stay invested all the time but profit take in the good times and buy in the bad times.

[Tensai]

A mate of mine on contract with KBR (oil and gas) got his one week notice today. He's got his fingers crossed the oil price bounces back pretty soon, otherwise his wife's gonna be all over him (in more ways than one).

It's a bloodbath in the Upstream industry at the moment.

ClientCos are only interested in cost-cutting right now, so even the few gigs available are at rates 20-40% lower than 12 months ago. Many of the permies who've been laid off are looking for stop-gap contracts as well as perm roles, which is pushing rates down even further.

Even if the price does bounce up in the near future (which no-one I speak to inside the industry believes will happen,) the ClientCos are using this as an excuse to push rates to the bottom.

Other than that, everything is rosy

[eek]

It's a bloodbath in the Upstream industry at the moment.

ClientCos are only interested in cost-cutting right now, so even the few gigs available are at rates 20-40% lower than 12 months ago. Many of the permies who've been laid off are looking for stop-gap contracts as well as perm roles, which is pushing rates down even further.

Even if the price does bounce up in the near future (which no-one I speak to inside the industry believes will happen,) the ClientCos are using this as an excuse to push rates to the bottom.

Other than that, everything is rosy

Yep its utterly unpleasant and there isn't a solution in site (Saudi want money at any price, the shale gas providers may as well continue producing for the same reasons). The North Sea is an expensive place to produce oil so no option is pleasant and all anyone can do is cut costs to the absolute bone...

[LondonManc]

I think 40 is going to be the new high. Saudis pumping in more to keep prices low and bankrupt new US shale companies, with low output from China, hence low usage.

I think it's an add though but I don't see it moving for a few years and then not back to the 600s

US not hurting as much as expected on this - Colombia are really suffering.

[BlasterBates]

Upstreaming earnings at Shell have crashed. If Shell only had upstream activities it would have gone bankrupt. i.e. earnings 80% down, however earnings on it's downstream activities have soared, this means instead making a loss, they're simply making "slightly less profit" than last year.

If oil were to stay down for the longterm, it's clear they'll just expand their downstream activities.

It's just simply an undervalued company

[SantaClaus]

[MarillionFan]

And we're up. Which is surprising based on China drop overnight, but hey ho. None of my targeted shares low enough yet.