One Of The US’s Largest Natural Gas Companies Goes Bankrupt. Here’s Why Russia Is Partially To Blame

[Geee]

Daily Caller

One of the largest shale drillers in the country filed for bankruptcy recently as the natural gas industry deals with a one-two punch of coronavirus fears and Russia’s continued war against U.S. energy producers.

Whiting Petroleum became the first giant natural gas company to slide into bankruptcy Wednesday as many energy producers meet debt obligations and an oil war between the world’s largest energy producers. Whiting sought chapter 11 protection in Texas amid the strife.

Prices fell into the $30s as the Saudis pushed for a cut in output to prop up prices, while Russia is working to infuse the market with hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil. Moscow is worried that the U.S. will use shale oil to take advantage if Saudi Arabia ease off production.

Bankruptcies are expected to increase as crude production increases while demand plummets, according to Buddy Clark, a co-chair at international corporate law firm Haynes & Boone.

 

[Geee]

Small oil producers struggle to survive coronavirus price drop

[Geee]

Mortgage Defaults Expected to Dwarf Anything We've Seen Before

Bloomberg reports that mortgage lenders are hunkering down for the biggest wave of defaults in history in the wake of coronavirus, making 2008 look like a walk in the park:

 

Mortgage lenders are preparing for the biggest wave of delinquencies in history. If the plan to buy time works, they may avert an even worse crisis: Mass foreclosures and mortgage market mayhem.

 

Borrowers who lost income from the coronavirus -- already a skyrocketing number, with a record 10 million new jobless claims -- can ask to skip payments for as many as 180 days at a time on federally backed mortgages, and avoid penalties and a hit to their credit scores. But it’s not a payment holiday. Eventually, they’ll have to make it all up.

As many as 30% of Americans with home loans – about 15 million households –- could stop paying if the U.S. economy remains closed through the summer or beyond, according to an estimate by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

“This is an unprecedented event,” said Susan Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “The great financial crisis happened over a number of years. This is happening in a matter of months -- a matter of weeks.”

 

THIRTY PERCENT. In a matter of months. That number is astronomical.