Continental Resources Inc (OKLA)

The availability of takeaway capacity from the Bakken can affect producers’ earnings.

All these upstream companies have seen the short interest in their stocks rise—an potential indication of market skepticism in these companies’ abilities to profit from oil’s recent gains.

Oasis Petroleum’s short interest ratio on September 13, 2016, was ~19.4%. Its short interest ratio on June 30, 2016, was 16.1%.

The difference between actual and expected changes in US crude oil inventory levels affects crude prices and thus revenues and earnings of major companies.

Analysts had expected a drop of 1.5 million barrels (mmbbls) in crude inventories last week. The following parts will cover actual changes in inventories.

On March 7, US crude oil April futures fell 2.3% and closed at $61.15 per barrel. Here’s what you need to know.

The inverted head and shoulder pattern is the reverse of the head and shoulder pattern. It’s formed at the bottom of the downtrend.

It’s advisable to sell stocks on bounces when the stock is in a downtrend. In a sideways trend, it’s advisable to buy stock at support levels and sell at resistance levels.

Knowing the breakeven price of crude oil is important when trying to figure out what OPEC needs in order to regain market share.

Before learning the costs components of crude oil extraction, let’s take a look at how producers extract crude oil from the ground.

Recent consensus says the production cost of crude oil could range from $20 to $25 per barrel.

The current implied volatility in Apache’s stock (APA) is ~37.79%. In comparison, the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) has an implied volatility of 17.8%.

Let’s take a look at Continental Resources’ (CLR) stock performance in comparison to the performances of the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Oil & Gas Index since 2011.

Approximately 38.5% of the analysts rated Whiting Petroleum (WLL) as a “buy,” while ~56.4% rated it as a “hold.” The average broker target price is $14.28.

On November 21, 2016, Whiting Petroleum announced its intention to sell its Bakken midstream assets to an affiliate of Tesoro Logistics Rockies for $375 million.

The Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP) outperformed other energy ETFs from June 9–16, 2016. Falling crude oil has less of an impact on midstream companies.

In this series, we will analyze how badly Continental Resources (CLR) was hit by weak oil prices, and what measures it has taken to counter this situation. In 2015, crude oil accounted for 66% of CLR’s total production and 85% of its revenues.

The EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) reported that the US gasoline inventory rose by 8.4 MMbbls to 240.4 MMbbls for the week ending January 8, 2016.

OPEC members Nigeria, Libya, and Venezuela have the highest total cost of producing crude oil at $31.6 per barrel, $23.80 per barrel, and $23.50 per barrel.

The API (American Petroleum Institute) published its weekly crude oil, gasoline, and distillate inventory report on January 12, 2016.

OPEC has estimated that the road transportation sector will account for one-third of the global crude oil demand growth between 2014 and 2040.

The world’s largest producer of crude oil is Russia. It is also among the largest crude oil exporters.

Of the top American upstream stocks, EOG Resources has been the outperformer since June 2012, returning 93%. During the same period, Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) returned 61%.

In the past five years, many of the upstream and integrated energy companies have increased their debt. Some are more leveraged than others.

Falling oil prices have started to affect energy upstream companies’ revenues. These companies have resorted to cutting costs and focusing on cash flow.

Oil markets had been watching what OPEC would do in its November 27 meeting. Crude oil fell ~30% since June. It decided to stay production levels. Crude oil dropped ~10% after the news.