News update

The First Shale Casualty: WBH Energy Files For Bankruptcy; Many More Coming
Zero Hedge
While the mainstream media continues to chant the happy-clappy side of lower oil prices, now, we have the first casualty of the shale oil leverage debacle as WSJ reports, on Sunday, a private company that drills in Texas, WBH Energy LP, and its partners, filed for bankruptcy protection, saying a lender refused to advance more money.

Water stress may curtail fracking, says World Resources Institute
BBC News
Water shortages could hinder fracking for shale oil and gas in many parts of the world, the World Resources Institute (WRI) has said. In the first report of its kind, the WRI found that 38% of the world’s shale resources were in arid areas or in those with severe water stress. Accessing fresh water was likely to present “serious challenges”, it said.

Natural gas: The fracking fallacy
Nature
The United States is banking on decades of abundant natural gas to power its economic resurgence. This paper in leading science journal Nature cites new research and concludes that it may be “wishful thinking”. The paper has prompted the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the University of Texas to join issue with Nature. A letter sent by EIA to the journal chides it for “inaccurate and distorted reporting”. You can follow the ongoing debate at Inside Energy.

This Oil Thing Is The Real Deal
The Automatic Earth
It’s no longer about which factors bring down oil prices, that’s old news; it’s about what oil prices bring down. The oil price drop is a much bigger event than the US subprime housing crisis, it’s bigger than everything put together that happened in 2008. And this time, central banks are lame sitting ducks.

The Real Cause Of Low Oil Prices: Interview With Arthur Berman
Oilprice.com
In a third exclusive interview with James Stafford of Oilprice.com, energy expert Arthur Berman explores:
• How the oil price situation came about and what was really behind OPEC’s decision
• What the future really holds in store for U.S. shale
• Why technology doesn’t have much influence on oil prices
• How the global energy mix is likely to change but not in the way many might have hoped

Peak Oil From The Demand Side: A Prophetic New Model
Peak Oil Barrel
The most attention-grabbing attempts to predict oil futures have come from geologists and environmental activists, who tend to look solely at production. An overlooked doctoral thesis by Christophe McGlade, Uncertainties in The Outlook for Oil and Gas, in contrast, focuses on how both supply and demand might be constrained in the coming decades. Peak oil researchers should take note of McGlade’s thesis because he predicted, in November 2013, that oil prices would sink, and that they will stay low throughout the second half of this decade.