The U.S. national average price per gallon of gasoline could decline to under $3 for the first time since 2021, amid sluggish demand, GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan said on Monday. Gasoline prices have fallen for the second straight week, down 3.8 cents from a week ago to $3.03 per gallon as of Sunday. Compared to a month ago, the average price per gallon is down 12.2 cents, while prices are down 22 cents compared to a year ago, according to GasBuddy data. “With a record rise in gasoline inventories... Читать дальше...
Norway's national oil company Equinor has announced that it has sold its shares in two Azerbaijani oil fields and the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan oil pipeline to Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and will exit from Azerbaijan after 30 years in the country. "Equinor is in the process of reshaping its international oil and gas business, and the divestments in Azerbaijan are in line with our strategy to focus our international portfolio," said Philippe Mathieu, Equinor's executive vice-president for international... Читать дальше...
Norwegian company Statkraft, Europe’s largest generator of renewable energy, plans a record investment of up to $6.6 billion (6 billion euros) in Norway’s wind and hydropower generation. Up to $3.3 billion (3 billion euros) will go to upgrades and transformations of Norwegian hydroelectric power plants, and another up to $2.2 billion (2 billion euros) is earmarked for rehabilitation of dams and modernization of older power plants, Statkraft said on Monday. Around $1.1 billion (1 billion euros)... Читать дальше...
Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates formally joined the BRICS group of major emerging economies on January 1, 2024, expanding the bloc’s footprint in the Global South and growing its economic and political clout on the world stage, establishing a real counterweight to the Western-dominated G7. You will find more infographics at Statista In August, the bloc had announced that it would be admitting six new members, including Argentina. However, as Statista's Felix Richter reports... Читать дальше...
The Dutch government has decided to temporarily extract minimal amounts of natural gas from two sites at the Groningen gas field that was closed last year, as a deep freeze is moving into northwest Europe, boosting demand for space heating and electricity. The Groningen gas fields would be turned off on October 1, 2023, and permanently close next October, the government of the Netherlands said last summer. The fields were expected to remain in operational status for another year just in case the... Читать дальше...
More than 6,000 kilometers from Tehran, in treacherous waters off the shores of Singapore, a "dark fleet" of oil tankers waits to offload the precious cargo that helps keep Iran's economy afloat -- a dependency that could also sink it. The fleet has grown steadily over the past five years, delivering Iranian crude to China as the countries work in concert to circumvent international sanctions that target Tehran's lucrative oil exports. But while the clandestine trade has buoyed Iran's budget, it also comes at tremendous cost and risk to Tehran.
Shale tycoon Harold Hamm and U.S. and European supermajors are looking to support university courses in petroleum engineering and related disciplines in a bid to attract young talent to the industry that’s not viewed favorably by Millennials and Generation Z. Harold Hamm, the U.S. shale pioneer who founded Continental Resources, has donated to establish the Hamm Institute for American Energy at Oklahoma State University. At the end of 2021, the Harold Hamm Foundation and Continental Resources... Читать дальше...
Vehicle sales started to slow at the end of last year as "sticker shock" has been taking its toll on would-be U.S. consumers, according to Bloomberg. Potential buyers are now "balking" at the idea of 10% interest rates on car loans, the report says. The average price of a vehicle now sits at about $48,000 and sales fell to an SAAR of 15.4 million vehicles for the last month of 2023, the report says. This number is down from 15.5 million the previous two quarters. Jonathan Smoke, chief economist... Читать дальше...
Hedge funds and other portfolio managers ended the last week of 2023 with the most new bearish positions in futures and options contracts since March and the second-largest jump in weekly short additions since 2017. Money managers added some 61,000 short positions in Brent Crude and WTI Crude combined in the week to January 2, per data from the exchanges handling the trades. The latest Commitment of Traders reports show that speculators reduced their net long position – the difference between bullish... Читать дальше...
Given that Libya still has 48 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves – the largest in Africa – recent comments from National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Farhat Bengdara that it is on track to rise oil production from the circa-1.2 million bpd seen in recent months to 2 million bpd within the next three years at the earliest might appear well-founded. So too might his comment that the NOC is also planning major bidding rounds for oil exploration blocks this year. However, politically-driven... Читать дальше...
Shell’s fourth-quarter results will include impairment charges of up to $4.5 billion, which would be partly offset by a strong gas trading business, the UK-based supermajor said on Monday. Shell expects non-cash post tax impairments – which will be reported as identified items – of between $2.5 billion and $4.5 billion for the fourth quarter, “primarily driven by macro & external developments as well as portfolio choices, including the Singapore Chemicals & Products assets.” In addition,…
Oil prices plunged by nearly 4% early on Monday after Saudi Arabia signaled potentially weaker demand ahead by cutting the price of its oil across the board. As of 9:22 a.m. ET on Monday, the U.S. benchmark, WTI Crude, was down by 3.75% to $70.83. The international benchmark, Brent Crude, had slumped by 3.53% on the day, at $75.87. The move lower was triggered by Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude oil exporter, which cut the official selling prices (OSPs) for its crude loading in February to all regions. Читать дальше...
Commodities, including crude oil, are set for a good year, which could turn into “fantastic” if planned interest rate cuts materialize, according to veteran analyst Jeff Currie, who left Goldman Sachs last year after nearly 30 years at the helm of the bank’s commodity research division. All commodities are set for bullish moves in 2024 amid low inventories and record-high demand for raw materials, Currie, who is often bullish on the sector, told Bloomberg television in an interview on Monday. Читать дальше...
Fuel demand in India reached the highest level in seven months in December 2023, topping 20 million tons in total, oil ministry data cited by Reuters shows. On a monthly basis, demand was up by 6.2%, while on an annual basis, the increase stood at 2.6%. Among fuels, all but gasoline booked increases in demand. India is widely seen as one of the two biggest drivers of global oil demand, alongside China. The subcontinent is the third-largest oil consumer globally. Its economy is growing faster than... Читать дальше...
Libya’s National Oil Corporation has declared a force majeure on the country’s largest oil field, Sharara amid protests from local communities. The force majeure entered into effect on Sunday, the NOC said on X, adding that it was negotiating with the protesters in a bid to resume the oil flow to the Zawya export terminal. Protests at the Sharara field began last week, with protesters demanding greater government involvement in the southern region of Fezzan, including more job creation and more investments... Читать дальше...
Saudi Arabia has reduced the price of its crude oil for February delivery for all buyers rather than just Asian ones as it has done before. The cut for Asian importers was the deepest, however, at $2 per barrel for all grades that Saudi Arabia exports, Energy Intelligence’s Amena Bakr said in an X post. Interestingly, Aramco also cut the price for North American buyers by the same amount, while in previous price adjustments it has cut these prices more modestly. For European buyers, Aramco cut February... Читать дальше...
Crude oil futures fell back on Thursday’s session after making big gains in the previous session, with the latest weekly data showing a "massive" increase in U.S. domestic distillate and gasoline stockpiles, suggesting anemic demand for oil products likely due to well above normal temperature cycle this winter. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. crude inventories for the final week of 2023 fell by a bigger-than-expected margin at 5.5M barrels; however, gasoline inventories... Читать дальше...
The world’s largest banks made $3 billion in profits from bond underwriting and loan provisions in the “environmentally friendly” category last year. That amount compared with the $2.7 billion that banks made from bonds and loans provided to the oil industry. Some would hail this as an achievement for transition-focused industries. But is it? To begin with, as Bloomberg points out in the article containing the loan profit data, one reason for the increase in transition financing was stricter EU regulation. Читать дальше...
