Investors Back Brent To Break $80 (20 September 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - For more than a week, Brent Crude prices have been flirting with the $80 threshold as market participants have focused on the shrinking oil supply from Iran and continuous drop in Venezuela’s production. For a couple of weeks now, investors, traders, and money managers have been increasingly bullish on Brent Crude, while Permian constraints have made them trim bets that WTI Crude prices would rise. The bullish sentiment in Brent was further stoked this week by reports that OPEC’s largest producer and leader Saudi Arabia may now be comfortable letting oil prices rise above $80 a barrel—a possible sign that the Saudis may not be rushing to balance supply if more Iranian oil comes off the market this month and next. (Source: Oil Price)
Why Oil Markets Can’t Escape OPEC, Russian Influence (19 September 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - OPEC members and their Russia-led non-OPEC allies have yet to decide how to share the 1 million bpd production boost they pledged in June. when they saw the market started to tighten too quickly which pushed oil prices to $80 a barrel—potentially ringing in the beginning of demand destruction. At a meeting this weekend in Algiers, OPEC and allies are expected to tackle the issue with the distribution of that 1 million bpd production boost, but the cartel and its key non-OPEC partner, Russia, are looking (years) beyond the short-term production quotas. (Source: Oil Price)
The Biggest Risk In Today’s Oil Markets (18 September 2018): By Nick Cunningham - The oil market is “tightening up,” but the Trump administration could still spoil oil prices if its aggressive trade war against China drags down economic growth. The U.S. stepped up the trade conflict with China on Monday when the Trump administration announced $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports. The move had been expected for weeks but trade proponents had hoped that the administration would ultimately shelve the idea when push came to shove. (Source: Oil Price)
Is The Shale Slowdown Overblown? (17 September 2018): By Nick Cunningham - The shale industry has hit a bit of a rough patch, with pipeline bottlenecks, cost inflation and a crowded field contributing to a drilling and production slowdown. But many in the industry are confident that the lull will be temporary. There are several strategies that shale companies are starting to pursue, such as pivoting to other shale plays, curtailing drilling activity, or drilling wells but deferring completions. According to Halliburton’s CEO Jeff Miller, as reported by Argus Media, these strategies are actually relieving a bit of pressure on the Permian basin and the cost inflation that has come with the concentration of drilling and the associated bottlenecks. (Source: Oil Price)
Hurricane Florence Could Send Coal Prices Soaring (16 September 2018): By MINING.com - As Hurricane Florence — a monster Category 2 storm — takes aim at southeastern United States, one of the country’s most important coal export hubs has halted operations due to looming damage to ships and infrastructure, analysts at Wood Mackenzie said Thursday. The National Hurricane Centre said in an advisory note there was a danger of “life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline”, particularly in North and South Carolina – south of Virginia’s three main coal export terminals at Hampton Roads. (Source: Oil Price)
JP Morgan: Big Oil’s Spend To Meet Climate Goals Will Be ‘Monumental’ (12 September 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - If Europe’s eight largest oil companies want to meet the climate and carbon-reducing goals they have set, their spending on new, low-carbon energies must double by 2020, and then double again within five years, with total spending seen as ‘monumental’, according to JP Morgan. Currently, Europe’s big oil—the eight largest companies Shell, Total, BP, Eni, Equinor, Repsol, OMV, and Galp—spend on average around 5 percent of their capital expenditures on “new energies,” JP Morgan said in a report, carried by Bloomberg. (Source: Oil Price)
Why The U.S. Is Suddenly Buying A Lot More Saudi Oil (10 September 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - For a few months now, OPEC has been boosting production to ease concerns about high oil prices amid expected supply losses from Venezuela and Iran. The cartel’s largest producer and exporter, Saudi Arabia, has been specifically targeting an increase in crude oil exports to the most transparent market, the United States, which reports crude oil imports and inventory levels every week. (Source: Oil Price)
Artificial Photosynthesis: A New Renewable Energy Source? (8 September 2018): By Haley Zaremba - An international team of scientists has made a major breakthrough for the future of sustainable fuel. They achieved this major milestone by copying the methods of some of the cleanest energy producers on the planet—plants. Scientists from the University of Cambridge and the Ruhr University Bochum have discovered a new technique that mimics the natural process of photosynthesis in plants, which could be used to produce hydrogen fuel, an extremely clean (zero carbon dioxide emissions) and essentially unlimited energy source. (Source: Oil Price)
OPEC/NOPEC To Discuss 1 Million Bpd Production Boost Next Week (7 September 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - A joint panel of OPEC and non-OPEC representatives will discuss next Tuesday how the group could distribute among them the 1 million bpd production increase that was agreed in June Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the plans. OPEC and its Russia-led partners of non-OPEC producers in the production cut pact agreed in June to ease compliance rates, in other words to boost production, to ease market and consumer concerns about an increasingly tighter market and higher oil and gasoline prices. (Source: Oil Price)
The Next Global Oil Hotspot (6 September 2018): By Irina Slav - There are at least 41 billion untapped barrels of crude oil in sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated two years ago. During the downturn, oil companies bought licenses there and waited for the price environment to improve to advance their drilling plans. Independents such as Tullow Oil and Kosmos Oil expanded on the continent alongside supermajors such as BP. Now, these drilling plans are gathering pace. (Source: Oil Price)
Say Goodbye To Cheap Oil… For Now (4 September 2018): By Nick Cunningham - Oil prices will be much higher over the next few years than previously thought, according to a new report from Barclays. The investment bank significantly raised its pricing forecast for 2020 and 2025 in its annual medium-term oil report. Barclays expects Brent to average $75 per barrel in 2020, up from a previous estimate of $55, while prices may average $80 in 2025, up from $70 previously. The bank noted that the market is dramatically different than it was at this point last year when it issued its previous medium-term report. (Source: Oil Price)
Force majeure declared on supplies after German refinery fire (3 September 2018): LONDON, (Reuters) - Varo Energy has declared force majeure on fuel deliveries to its customers after a fire on Saturday at its Bayernoil refining complex in Germany, a spokeswoman said. The fire affected the 120,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant in Vohburg. The plant is expected to be out of action for several weeks. The Bayernoil complex is comprised of two plants, Vohburg and Neustadt, with total capacity of 215,000 bpd. “Varo has declared force majeure because the fulfillment of our deliveries to our customers is significantly influenced by the production of Bayernoil,” the spokeswoman said. (Source: Hydrocarbon Processing)
Adnoc commissions specialised coker unit (2 September 2018): Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the state-controlled oil and gas major, took the next step in growing its downstream operations by commissioning a new unit to extract maximum value from the heavy oils and slurry, to make products that will be marketed in the UAE and abroad. Adnoc Refining, a subsidiary of Adnoc, has completed the commissioning of a specialised coker unit that will allow the company to get value from “bottom-of-the-barrel” as it aggressively pursues its downstream strategy, the company on Sunday. (Source: The National (UAE))
Melting Arctic Creates New Opportunities For LNG (1 September 2018): By Tsvetana Paraskova - Ice caps in the Arctic Circle are melting at an alarming pace, scientists and environmentalists warn. Global warming leads to larger amounts of ice caps retreating, opening more sea waters in the Arctic to ship navigation. Waters navigable in more days in a year are an opportunity for energy buyers and sellers, especially in liquefied natural gas (LNG), to use the so-called Northern Sea Route that cuts the travel days from the Yamal LNG project in Russia to Asia in half compared to the Southern Sea Route via the Suez Canal. (Source: Oil Price).