A few months ago I ran through a bunch of online news resources that you can hang on to keep track of what’s going on right now in the oil and gas industry. Mostly I focused on the large Mainstream Media sources (WSJ, Forbes, Bloomberg, NYTimes, The Economist), a number of industry specific portals (Oilpro, Rigzone, fuelfix, the API), and investment portals (seekingalpha, etc.)
Today however, I thought I would hit a little closer to where my heart lies. At the very heart of the information upheaval of the past couple of decades lies the much-maligned, often misunderstood, but ever-present nonetheless weblog – you’re soaking in one right now!
Arguably present since Dave Winer’s Scripting News of the late 90s, blogs really started coming into their own as a personal communication medium with an explosion, mostly led by political blogs, between 2001 and 2003. Drillinginfo first entered the blogging fray around 2004 with the Open Choke blog!
About a decade ago we entered the age of Technorati – where companies and advertisers started to understand the advantages and traffic-appeal of the medium, and blogs started to cross all topics.
For the first time expertise was affirmed not by degrees or titles, but rather by relatability and enthusiasm and, perhaps most importantly, authenticity.
Let’s take a look at some of the Best Oil & Gas Blogs in 2016.
Clipper Data’s Clipper Blog
Matt Smith’s ClipperBlog at Clipper Data is just an amazing resource. Clipper Data uses Big Data and Big Data Analytics to provide insight into global crude and refined product movement and inventories, and the blog does a very good job of showing off the power of those insights. Last Friday’s post, Oil unable to rally despite sliding dollar, ties many of the macro themes together with their data, and finishes it off with a Curtis Mayfield shaped bow.
Genscape Blog
Genscape, who are busy applying the “Internet Of Things” to global energy storage, publishes the Genscape Blog which, like the ClipperBlog, ties their proprietary information into the real world. Their May 12 post, Alberta Wildfire Disrupts North American Crude Supply Chain was one of the first indications of the actual supply disruption we would expect from the catastrophe.
RBN Energy’s Daily Energy Blog
Rusty Braziel’s RBN Energy runs the Daily Energy Post which is released at 5:00 pm. Rusty and his stable of journalists and consultants are smart and engaging, and can even make policy seem fun to read. Let’s Go To Eaglebine, Texas – What It Might Take To Revive A Middle-Tier Shale Play from May 22 wraps the future potential for the East Texas play into a Waylon and Willie refrain.
Oilholics Synonymous Report
Guarav Sharma’s Oilholics Synonymous Report is a very good starting point for his extensive oil and energy journalism. His May 20 post, It’s about the ‘crude’ bid/ask differential stupid!, is an interesting take on distressed assets and muddling along towards bankruptcy.
Today in Energy from the EIA
The EIA’s Today in Energy is in many cases the actual source for much of what gets reported in the media. May 6ths post, Recent U.S. imports of oil tend to be heavier than domestic production, ties API gravity to the reasons we import the crude that we do and why.
The RigUp Blog
RigUp, an Austin, TX based company that positions itself as a marketplace for oilfield services, has a The RigUp Blog with more of an OFS POV. Their recent post, DUCs and Drilling in the Bakken: Oasis Petroleum Case Study, was contributed by DIs own Tanya Andrien.
Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog
John McFarland from Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody in Austin, TX publishes the (admittedly niche, but still interesting) Oil and Gas Lawyer Blog. Yesterday’s post, Texas Supreme Court refuses to review Forest Oil v. McAllen, links out to some previous analysis on the case.
Allen Gilmer’s LinkedIN
Drillinginfo’s CEO posts on LinkedIN about all sorts of topics, from probabilistic decline curves to Geosteering. When he gets all excited about the (admittedly very exciting) innovations Drillinginfo has coming up for our products, as in DI Transform, The Most Rapidly Evolving GG&E Platform On The Planet (We Think), you are likely to learn something AND be entertained.
Oilpro
Oilpro.com deserves yet another plug in here – although as an aggregator a lot of their posts are reprints from other outlets, much of the most useful content within the platform is user generated. Take for example todays post, King Hubbert Never Dies by Gary Sernovitz. Gary read Mason Inman’s recent book about Hubbert, The Oracle of Oil, and has written a very thoughtful review.
The Drillinginfo Blog
We cover news and trends, we talk about technology and geology, we provide global context and local analysis, we show you the sort of solutions we can provide and provide a platform for guest posts from other industry experts. Heck – we’ve even forayed into the black arts of oilfield financing! I’d be much obliged if you let a few of your friends know about us and encouraged them to subscribe. Subscribers also get my weekly top 10 news digest!
Bonus #11 – Oilprice.com
A commenter pointed out that I had not included Oilprice.com on either this or the news summary, and that’s a shame because it is a very good resource. They cover a lot of news as it breaks, produce ample timely editorials, and have a large stable of contributors. This recent post on Why $50 Oil Makes Sense by contributor Rakesh Upadhyay is an excellent summary of the fundamentals of our current market.
Your Turn
Who did I miss? What Oil & Gas Blogs do you read all the time?