In last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal there was a front page article titled U.S. Boom Can Stand Further Fall in Oil Prices. “Oil prices would need to fall at least another $20 a barrel to choke off the U.S. energy boom, industry experts say, though some smaller American producers would face serious problems from a […]
Retailers are gearing up for the upcoming holiday season. While most stores are currently decked out in Halloween gear, come November 1, that will all change. Cue the Christmas trees, lights, and music, because the holiday season is fast approaching. I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it. But the retailers sure seem ready. […]
I’ve been doing some research on the unconventional oil supply chain. Unconventional oil includes crude oil from shale and oil sands. I’ve talked to over 20 oil executives and experts about the inbound supply chain that supports oil well production. This is part of the supply chain that the oil industry refers to as “upstream.” […]
About 400,000 carloads of crude oil traveled by rail last year to the nation’s refineries, up from 9,500 in 2008, according to the Association of American Railroads. A series of recent accidents — including one in Quebec last July that killed 47 people and another in Alabama last November — has put pressure on regulators […]
I’ve had recent conversations with part of the ARC Advisory Group Oil & Gas team – Dave Lafferty, Paul Steinitz, Tim Shea, and Mark Sen Gupta – on the upstream “fracking” or shale oil supply chain. Fracking includes getting oil and natural gas out of shale by fracturing (“fracking”) the shale rock. In the industry, oil wells […]
I finished my first ARC Market Study this week, looking at the Transportation Management Systems market. On top of that, my colleague, Clint Reiser, and I are wrapping up our omni-channel fulfillment survey, with an upcoming presentation at the annual CSCMP show in September. So it’s been a pretty busy week (month) here. Let’s get right […]
This past weekend I tried Uber for the first time. For those of you unfamiliar with Uber, it is basically a crowd sourced taxi that operates at a fraction of the cost of a typical taxi ride. All drivers must pass a rigorous background and driving check, and scheduling a ride is easy. Through their […]
