Good morning; here's what the Oilman has for you today:

• Exxon Is Not Keeping It in the Ground

• OPEC Trolls Reuters, WSJ, Bloomberg

• Tweet of the Day

Exxon Is Not Keeping It in the Ground

Exxon plans to double its shale oil output thanks to new technology, CEO Darren Woods has said.

The company eyes output of up to 1 million barrels daily from its shale operations by 2027.

10% is not enough

Exxon currently pumps out just a tenth of what’s in the ground in the shale patch where it operates.

That sure doesn’t sound like a lot, so the company is taking steps to improve recovery rates.

But here’s something funny: Reuters recently lamented the fact that technological advances in shale are getting fewer and rarer.

The report predicted that this would mean a decline in production over time.

It seems Exxon disagrees.

"We are beginning to see the signs of some very promising new technologies," Darren Woods says.

These new technologies will "significantly improve recovery".

It doesn’t need to be revolution all the time

Oil industry guru Daniel Yergin said earlier this year, "I don’t see any other transformative technology at this time that is really going to change the global market."

But based on what Exxon is doing, tech doesn’t need to be transformative to boost production.

Woods says that Exxon will essentially take current tech further.

That’s the great thing about transformative tech: once you master it, you can build on it with incremental improvements.

You don’t need revolutions every ten years or so.

You only need a revolution once, and then you can build on that.

Bad news for the “keep it in the ground” crowd, for sure.

OPEC Trolls Reuters, WSJ, Bloomberg

Some of the biggest news media groups got a nasty surprise from OPEC last week.

The cartel did not send invites to Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal to cover their Sunday meeting.

Haters gonna hate…

According to reports, the decision to not issue accreditation for Reuters, Bloomberg, and WSJ journalists came from the Saudi energy minister.

Abdulaziz bin Salman, half-brother of the kingdom’s de facto ruler, doesn’t have much patience with journalists.

He’s demonstrated this repeatedly.

But it seems the above three agencies really got on his nerves.

How? Nobody knows. Or if they know, they’re not saying.

Short sellers gonna short… maybe

If there’s one group of people bin Salman hates more than journalists, that’s short sellers.

The man even warned them last month that they’re going to “ouch” again like they ouched in April.

That’s when OPEC+ surprised traders with an additional output cut.

One reason for the Reuters/Bloomberg/WSJ ban could be prices.

All these news agencies try to outrun each other in breaking OPEC news. And the news moves prices. Always.

But the FT and CNBC made the cut for the Sunday meeting. It won’t be a media-free event. Prices will move.

I guess Abdulaziz just had it in for those three.

And he definitely has it in for short sellers.

They know it. And they’re cutting their short bets on oil.

The Reuters/Bloomberg/WSJ mystery remains a mystery.

Around the Global Patch

🇮🇳 India's clean energy revolution: renewables and no coal.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's ambitious lithium expansion.
🇮🇳 India's record-breaking Russian oil imports.

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