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

• It’s A Tough Time To Be An E&P

• Oregon County Sues Exxon for Heat Wave

• Tweet of the Day

It’s A Tough Time To Be An E&P

The latest Dallas Fed Energy Survey is out, and it reveals an industry in a perpetual squeeze.

Federal policies, regulatory obstacles to expansion, green favoritism, and inflation are all giving oil and gas companies a headache.

On the plus side, executives are not too worried about tighter credit rules…so that’s something.

It’s getting harder to do business in oil and gas

Business activity in the Texas oil patch slowed down in the second quarter, the survey found, and there are plenty of reasons for that.

Costs have gone up for the 11^th quarter in a row.

There are not enough workers, though this is good news for workers themselves, so yay for the labor market.

The government is openly hostile to the industry.

And, of course, China's demand is a worry.

On top of all that, the industry is feeling a bit offended by the Biden admin’s favoritism of other sources of energy.

Here’s what one executive said:

“Politicians should not be anointing certain market winners in order to work to undermine energy companies.”

Another commented that “Our country’s leadership for the last two years has created a lot of uncertainty in the energy sector.”

Lower supply ahead

The combination of these factors is pointing towards lower oil and gas supply.

It’s not just China and its oil demand, you see.

It’s the absent motivation to boost production when you don’t see any benefit in doing that.

Why?

Well, “The state regulatory environment is worsening. Costs continue to increase just to do business,” per another respondent.

Also, “Natural gas prices are unsustainable, and if they stay at this level for the better part of 2023, it is going to do great damage to our ability to provide natural gas in the future.”

It’s not looking good for our future oil and gas supply. Or China’s.

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Oregon County Sues Exxon for Heat Wave

An Oregon county has filed a $51-billion lawsuit against Big Oil, claiming the 2021 heat dome was their fault.

The nice non-round sum that Multnomah County is seeking from the industry is for both past and future damages.

It’s open season for climate lawsuits

First, it was a group of kids suing Montana for its pro-oil and gas policies, and now this.

Multnomah County has alleged that Exxon, Chevron, the API, and another dozen companies and industry groups knew about climate change.

And that they did nothing to either mitigate it or inform the public.

Basically, nothing new.

But they’re claiming it was climate change that caused the heat dome in 2021.

Thermometers hit 114 during the dome in Oregon and over 121 in British Columbia.

Close to 70 people died from the heat, per an Oregon report.

So, now, that county wants $50 million in damages from the dome.

But that’s the small potatoes.

They also want $1.5 billion in future damages.

And another $50 billion to prepare for those future damages.

Everybody hates Big Oil

Apparently, the heat dome was Big Oil’s fault.

Because the whole climate change thing is Big Oil’s fault.

You have to agree; it’s super convenient.

Especially now, with all those record profits they raked in that are driving activists up the walls.

You can literally ask for any sum from the oil industry on the grounds that you suffered harm from climate change, and it’s all their fault.

Or even that you will suffer harm in the future as if it’s a sure thing.

Can’t wait for the next lawsuit. Perhaps they’ll blame Big Oil for cancer, too.

Oh, wait, they already did.

Around the Global Patch

🇺🇸 Funding India's state refiners' net-zero goals.
🇨🇳 China's milestone, the longest deepwater oil pipeline completed.
🇷🇺 Gold bar vending machines unveiled by the Korean convenience store.

Tweet of the Day

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