Just curious what you guys think...
Upstream
Midstream
Downstream and refining
Thanks
8 replies (most recent on top)
None of those. Oil business has always been volatile. If you do stay in oil, save your money during the good times.
Work for an electric company for stability.
Owning your own business is good, too, but of course, there are risks in that as well.
There is still demand. How do you think all those groceries and random stuff we buy at home gets to the supermarkets and our home?
There is no safe place in this industry. WTI currently down to...... $11/barrel
There is no safe place in this industry. WTI currently down to $14/barrel.
Chevron or one of the European majors.
Yes, there are higher profit margins with cheaper petroleum, but someone still has to want to buy those refined products. Some products are being purchased. But anything related to travel (gasoline, jet fuel, motor oil, automotive plastics) is not moving at all. I agree, refineries and downstream are doing the best, but they aren't even able to move products if nobody's leaving home.
It’s not about demand coming back quicker for refining. It’s about the refining making more money when crude is the cheapest. Inexpensive crude makes refining margins on products higher.
Downstream and refining will likely come back the quickest, because at some point there will be demand for those products. Then, it will take a while to clear out the glut of extra oil before upstream or midstream come back at all, and oil prices will likely be depressed for a long time due to the high supply and low demand. So I'd say downstream and refining are probably the safest. But hardly anything's safe these days. It'll probably be months to years of pain for everyone, sorry to say.