Oil price hike

Extreme oil price hike today. Up $3 as of time of writing. Crazy.

Job market is still a bit unreliable. Have spoken to a few candidates now who have had jobs offered, withdrawn, offered and withdrawn again. A lot of employers seem to be treading a fine line on their projects, which casues all kinds of problems for employees and employers alike. Once candidates hear a company has a poor recruitment procedure, or that they muck candidates around, this can cause irrevocable damage when they do try to recruit again.

If only they would listen to me.....

Potentially troubled times for Petrobras ahead. Article here. It is possible they've bitten off more they can chew, but in my completely amateur opinion, they are in a lot better shape than Venezuela for example, and should have the money coming out of the pre-salt layer oil to justify a great deal of borrowing now.

Mexico want in on the action though. Article here. Interestingly, there is no response from Brazil, and I don't know what they would get out of any arrangement. It would be interesting to see what happens.

Things aren't looking so great for rig day rates either. Article here. Most notable is the Jack up rate falling for NW Europe. Definitely a bad sign when the utilization is generally consistent. But this isn't any news.

Cool little 3D animation for drilling here if you want to have a look.

No real comment, but no post from me would be complete without something to do with the Chinese. It's here.

Still looking for that Marine Engineer. Anyone you know, please get them to send their CV to mb.oilblog@googlemail.com