Five years ago this month, we were in the first six weeks of a COVID lockdown and the world was grinding to a shocking halt. Oil prices collapsed and briefly traded negative, plunging to nearly -$40 per barrel. This was an anomaly, and if you are interested on how this happened, please go back and read some news articles about oil prices during the second half of April 2020. This link provides a good summary of the oil price collapse in 2020. The financial markets were in turmoil at this time as well. A few short weeks ago we did not have any idea that we would be in the midst of similar volatility—but here we are.

Driven by the uncertainty of the impact of President Trump’s tariffs, financial markets have gyrated wildly following an initial, unprecedented fall in equity prices. The drop in the market is driven by the uncertainty of future earnings of companies due to the President’s new high tariff plan. This is in no way intended to be an opinion on the plan, but rather to highlight how volatility disrupts the global economy and the impacts that has our industry. In 2008, there was the housing crisis driven by the subprime mortgage debacle, in 2015, oil prices collapsed driven by OPEC+ and Saudi Arabia, then COVID in 2020. The only certainty has been that there will always be an unprecedented, negative event lurking around the corner.

We have succeeded in setting up our business to be resilient, not only during uncertainty, but also in times of negative market conditions. I am hopeful that the current market volatility will be resolved quickly through negotiation of deals with USA’s trading partners. If there are long-term negative impacts on our industry, JOO will not be immune from the consequences, however, we are very well positioned to limit the negative impacts to our business.

For what it’s worth, I am hopeful and optimistic that the US GOA will remain a primary basin for global oil and gas production. A decrease in oil demand will have a lesser impact here than in other major producing basins.