$300 Oil: What If The Attacks In Saudi Arabia Had Destroyed Production? (30 September 2019): By Irina Slav - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBC) has told CBS that oil could reach “unimaginably high numbers” if a war with Iran were to erupt, which he suggested could happen if “the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter Iran.” And while MBS is known to engage in hyperbole when it comes to the threat Iran poses, recent events suggest he may have a point here. But what are these unimaginably high numbers he is suggesting? $100 per barrel? $300 per barrel? And what would the world look like if prices really went that high? (Source: Oil Price)
EIA projects strong Asian growth drives a 50% increase in global energy usage by 2050 (24 September 2019): WASHINGTON - In its International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019), the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that world energy consumption will grow by nearly 50% between 2018 and 2050. EIA projects most of this growth will come from regions where the consumption of energy is driven by strong economic growth, particularly in non-OECD Asia. EIA’s annual long-term assessment of world energy markets includes a Reference case and four core side cases, which use different assumptions for the projections in each case. (Source: World Oil)
Drone Strikes On Saudi Oil Highlight Risks For Global Economy (24 September 2019): By Leilah Schubert - The drone strike on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure has highlighted the fragile and interconnected relationship between crude oil supply and the global economy, with new research bringing these economic ties into greater focus. “We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of geopolitical events in the oil market, as it has the power to impend the stability of our financial world,” says University of Technology Sydney Finance researcher Dr Christina Sklibosios Nikitopoulos. (Source: Oil Price)
Banks Holding $47 Trillion Assets Sign Up To Climate Action (23 September 2019): A third of the world’s banks, worth a total of US$47 trillion in assets, committed on Sunday to align their business to the Paris Climate Agreement, in the biggest pledge to climate sustainability from the banking sector yet. As many as 130 banks, in cooperation with the United Nations, launched the Principles for Responsible Banking on Sunday, one day ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. (Source: Oil Price)
A constrained Middle East agenda awaits Donald Trump’s third UNGA: Despite talking up his intentions for solving multiple crises in the Middle East, US President Donald Trump may find his hands tied at this year's United Nations General Assembly meeting. Mr Trump will arrive in New York on Sunday night for his third UN General Assembly (UNGA), but he’s unlikely to be the star of the show this year. He is skipping two major UN-hosted summits on climate change and healthcare this year, choosing to concentrate on Tuesday’s general assembly address and a summit on religious freedom the day before. (Source: The National (UAE))
Has Iran Won The War For The Middle East? (21 September 2019): By Yossef Bodansky - The most important historic milestone was not the heavy damage to the Saudi oil installations during the attacks on them on September 14, 2019. Rather, it was a quiet Ashura ceremony held in the Imam Khomenei Hussainia in Tehran on September 11, 2019. Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamene‘i led the mourning ceremony for the Martyrs of the Tragedy of Karbala on the Day of Ashura1. To Khamene‘i’s left, sitting on cushions on the ground, were, in order of proximity to Khamene‘i, Hojjat al-Islam Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shi’ite-Iraqi leader known as “nationalist” and far from being Tehran’s protégé, and then, Qods Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Qassem Soleimani, and the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami. (Source: Oil Price)
Oil trader causes $320 million loss at Mitsubishi unit (20 September 2019): Mitsubishi said an oil trader at its Singapore unit lost $320 million (Dh1.2 billion) in unauthorised transactions disguised as legitimate hedges for customers. The employee, a Chinese national working at Petro-Diamond Singapore Pte, has been fired and reported to police, Mitsubishi said in a statement, declining to name him. The trader, hired in November 2018 to handle oil business with China, “repeatedly” engaged in the unauthorised deals since January, disguising them to “look like hedge transactions,” the parent company said. (Source: The National (UAE))
Saudi Oil Outage Impact Not As Bad As Predicted (17 September 2019): By Nick Cunningham - Oil prices have gyrated this week on conflicting reports and predictions regarding the restoration of operations at the damaged Abqaiq processing facility in Saudi Arabia. The largest disruption in oil market history led to a 15 percent price gain on Monday, but prices opened up sharply lower on Tuesday after Reuters reported that operations would resume much quicker than expected.
Oil slightly down following record jump after attacks disrupt half of Saudi output (17 September 2019): Brent was trading at $68.41 per barrel at 10am UAE time, down slightly after finishing at the highest since May following a record jump, after attacks shut down more than half of Saudi Arabia’s production. The European benchmark closed at $69 per barrel, 14 per cent higher than its previous close after markets priced in geopolitical risk premium as the world’s largest oil exporter faced the biggest disruption in its history. The outage, which took 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi production offline, raised concerns in the global oil markets about the reliability of the kingdom’s crude, which has long been a stable source of supply for the markets. (Source: The National (UAE))
Oil surges above 19% after attacks halve Saudi output (16 September 2019): Oil prices jumped more than 19 per cent at it resumed trading on Monday – the highest in more than two decades – after attacks on Saudi Arabian facilities took half the country’s output offline. Brent, the European benchmark for light, sweet crude rose as high as $71.95 per barrel as markets began to price in a geopolitical risk premium into prices after the facility in Abqaiq that processes around 7 million barrels per day, or 7 per cent of global output, came under attack. (Source: The National (UAE))
$100 Oil? Drone Strikes Halt Half Of Saudi Crude Production (14 September 2019): By Michael Kern - Half of Saudi Arabia's oil production has gone offline following a surprise drone strike. Drones attacked Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia and the Khurais oil field run by Saudi Aramco early Saturday morning, the kingdom's interior ministry said, sparking a massive fire at a crude processing plant essential to global oil supplies. The closure will impact nearly 5 million barrels of crude processing per day, affecting 5 percent of the world's daily oil production. And while Aramco is confident that it can recover quickly, if it can't, however, the world could face a production shortage of as much 150MM barrels per month. An outcome which could send oil prices into the triple digits. (Source: Oil Price)
Harold Hamm: U.S. Oil Firms Adjust Production Growth To Demand (12 September 2019): By Tsvetana Paraskova - U.S. shale producers intend to meet oil demand, but not exceed it, so they are adjusting their production growth accordingly, shale pioneer and the chairman and chief executive of Continental Resources, Harold Hamm, told CNBC on Thursday. The growth projectile has slowed down the last year, Hamm told CNBC’s show ‘Squawk on the Street’. “One thing you can’t do is get ahead of market, we want to meet demand, but getting ahead of it is not a good thing and we’ve seen the result of that,” Hamm said. (Source: Oil Price)
Oil Demand Growth Weakest In Nearly A Decade (11 September 2019): Global oil demand continues to see downgrades from major energy forecasters, with several downward revisions in just the past week. The U.S. EIA said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook that it expects oil demand to grow by only 0.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) this year, the latest in a series of downgrades from the agency. In July, it said 2019 demand would grow by 1.1 mb/d and in June it said 1.2 mb/d. The EIA started off the year expecting demand to grow by 1.5 mb/d this year. (Source: Oil Price)
Cost of giant Aramco refinery project to rise (10 September 2019): India’s planned giant refinery and petrochemical project, which is being built with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), will cost more than the originally planned $45 billion, India’s oil minister said. The 1.2 million barrels-per-day (bpd) giant coastal project is part of India’s plans to raise its refining capacity by 77% to 8.8 million bpd by 2030. It is being built at Roha, around 100 km (62 miles) south of Mumbai. “The primary plan was around $45 billion, it will be more than that,” Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters at the World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, declining to say by how much. (Source: Hydrocarbon Processing)
Around $11tn investment needed in oil and gas to meet current demand, says Adnoc chief (9 September 2019): About $11 trillion (Dh40tn) of investment in oil and gas is needed to keep up with current demand, with the UAE on track to reach 4 million barrels per day production capacity by 2020, according to the group chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. "Over three times the amount of energy currently consumed by all of Europe will be added to global energy demand in the next two decades," said Dr Sultan Al Jaber. (Source: The National (UAE))
Oil prices edge up following new Saudi energy minister appointment (9 September 2019): Oil prices edged up on Monday following the new appointment by Saudi Arabia of Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as the kingdom's energy minister and US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell brushing off recession fears and indicating the prospect of additional interest rate cuts. Brent gained 0.94 per cent and was trading at $62.12 and West Texas Intermediate oil was up 1.08 per cent at $57.13 at 11:20 am UAE time. The gain in prices comes a day after Saudi Arabia replaced Khalid Al-Falih as the country’s energy minister and ahead of an Opec+ meeting this week in Abu Dhabi to review their production strategy. Saudi Arabia's energy policy is expected to remain the same under the new minister. (Source: The National (UAE))
UK Takes The Lead In Offshore Wind Power (5 September 2019): By Precise Consultants - It’s thanks to her that the UK has been catapulted right to the top of the European installed capacity league table. This enormous 588 MW wind farm, eight miles off the Caithness coast and powered by 84-turbines, can power up to 450,000 homes. As well as being the fourth largest offshore wind farm in the world, the project came in at £100m under budget – costing of £2.6bn. (Source: Oil Price)
World’s Top Oil Trader Sees Oil Prices Weakening This Year (5 September 2019): By Tsvetana Paraskova - Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, expects oil prices to weaken in the fourth quarter this year, although prices are unlikely to be below $50 a barrel for a sustained period of time, Vitol’s chief executive officer Russell Hardy told Reuters on Thursday. “I expect a softer price in Q4 but it is unlikely to be sustained below $50 a barrel because that means $45 for shale, which would result in capex being cut,” the manager noted. (Source: Oil Price)