As the price of oil has just fallen again for the fourth day in a row, dipping below $54 a barrel for NYMEX crude, serious concerns are surfacing in the energy sector over financing for key production and transit projects, which could present a major strain on future supplies.  With the credit tap still turned off and panic over rapidly changing projected cost structures, both technically complicated and politically risky projects are getting delayed – such as the massive oil sands project in Canada, the “Sarah Palin pipeline,” the Petrobras deepwater megafield, and slowing investment to Angola and Nigeria.

Even the implacable Norwegians at the tightly managed StatoilHydro are gloomy, as Chief Executive Helge Lund has commented “I now see more downside risk for our industry than in a long time. (…) The industry’s attention is clearly very quickly shifting from production and growth to cash flow and flexibility…Oil and gas companies all over the world are revisiting plans and investments, and projects are put on hold.“