Via Metal Miner The Renewables MMI (Monthly Metals Index) slowed its decline and began flattening out. Overall, the index dropped a slight 0.36%, demonstrating sideways price action month-on-month. Most index components, such as silicon and cobalt, experienced minimal downward movement without much price volatility. However, renewable resource news sources also indicated several notable factors that could impact future renewable energy commodity prices, such as renewable energy projects potentially... Читать дальше...
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has urged President Biden to ban Chinese-made electric vehicles to safeguard Ohio autoworkers and address the economic and national security risks from Chinese automakers. In a letter to President Biden this week, Brown highlighted that these companies, backed by the Chinese government, threaten the U.S. auto industry and argued that tariffs are not enough to counter this government-led challenge. “Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry. Читать дальше...
Chevron’s acquisition of Guyana superstar Hess could be delayed until next year thanks to Exxon Mobil’s arbitration case, Hess said in a Friday securities filing. Hess said in the filing that the $53 billion merger could be delayed until 2025. The deal was originally supposed to close this summer. Both Exxon and CNOOC have brought cases against the acquisition, arguing that, as current partners with Hess in the prolific Stabroek block, they legally have the right of first refusal. In October, Chevron... Читать дальше...
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell again this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, falling by 3. U.S. drillers saw a total loss of rigs this year of 5. The total rig count fell by 3 to 617 this week, compared to 751 rigs this same time last year. The number of oil rigs fell by 2 this week. Oil rigs now stand at 506--down by 84 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 1 this week to 109, a loss of 49 active gas rigs from this time last year. Читать дальше...
Shares of Rivian Automotive, Lucid Group, and Tesla Motors moved lower during the cash session in the US after Ford Motor announced price cuts for its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck amid concerns about sliding demand across the EV industry. Meanwhile, an EV price war between the automakers rages on as unprofitable EV startups struggle to survive. Let's begin with a Bloomberg report that says Ford is reducing the price of its Lightning pickup truck by up to 7.5%. Earlier this year, the company... Читать дальше...
Eskom, the state-owned utility of South Africa, is holding talks with the government on ways to attract public and private financing of the equivalent of $21 billion for a major expansion of the power grid to accommodate an expected rise in renewable energy, the company told Bloomberg on Friday. Eskom has estimated that it needs $21 billion (390 billion South African rand) to fund its plan to build nearly 9,000 miles of new power lines over the next decade, which would be more than triple the miles... Читать дальше...
Global oil demand growth is slowing due to “exceptionally weak” deliveries in developed economies at the start of the year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday as it revised down its 2024 world demand growth forecast by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). The rise in oil consumption continues to lose momentum, with first-quarter growth estimated at 1.6 million bpd, which is 120,000 bpd below the IEA’s previous forecast, the agency said in its Oil Market Report today. With most of the... Читать дальше...
Investor appetite for ESG funds and other sustainable investments remains steady in Europe, in stark contrast with the United States, where the ESG backlash has had investors pull billions of U.S. dollars out of sustainable funds over the past year. Europe has higher political and investor support for ESG investment products, a Reuters analysis shows, which has helped the continent to stay ahead of the U.S. in terms of sustainable investment flows. Global ESG funds, or funds that use environmental... Читать дальше...
Oil prices spiked on Friday morning following reports of heightened tensions between Iran and Israel, with the possibility of an Iranian attack on Israeli soil looming within the next 24 to 48 hours. The Wall Street Journal, citing American intelligence reports, revealed this development, sending shockwaves through global oil markets. Both the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil prices experienced significant jumps, with WTI rising by $2.02 and Brent climbing by $1.78 per barrel by... Читать дальше...
Chinese imports of crude oil fell in March by 6% compared to the same month last year as first-quarter crude imports were stable year-over-year amid high volumes of Russian crude flowing to China. China imported 49.05 million metric tons of crude oil last month, which is equal to around 11.55 million barrels per day (bpd), per data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs cited by Reuters. While lower by 6.2% compared to the March 2023 volumes of over 12 million bpd – when China was recovering... Читать дальше...
The recent oil price rally was held back this week by rising inventories and concerns that the Fed may postpone its interest rate cuts, but geopolitical risks could yet spark another upward movement.Friday, April 12th 2024Inventory builds in the US, red-hot inflation numbers that may postpone the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts, and Iran's attempts to play down the risk of an attack on Israel helped to slow down the recent oil price rally. On Friday morning, Brent was trading above $90 per... Читать дальше...
Markets were extremely jittery this week, awaiting a retaliatory attack by Iran following the Israeli strike on Tehran’s embassy in Syria, which killed a key Iranian general and other diplomats/military personnel. Israel is preparing for an attack, both at home and in proxy venues. But Tehran is already showing signs that it’s attempting to back down without losing face. It would not survive a direct attack on Israel and all that would entail in terms of blowback. The only way it would potentially... Читать дальше...
As somebody whose start in markets came in interbank foreign exchange, I am used to a degree of obsession with central banks. Back when I started in that market, which was longer ago than I care to admit, central banks still believed that they controlled the fate of their own currencies. They seemed to take delight at that time in surprising us all, whether that be with interest rate changes or direct intervention, and we all spent an inordinate amount of time parsing everything they said and trying to predict what they would do. Читать дальше...
Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict Baghdad is repairing the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has not been operable for ten years and hopes to use it to export some 350,000 bpd to Turkey as soon as this month. Essentially, that means that Baghdad has no intention of agreeing to the restart of the Kurdish pipeline to Turkey which has been shut down for over a year now as the Iraqi federal government and the Iraqi Region of Kurdistan wrangle over control of Kurdish oil resources. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline... Читать дальше...
1. EU Allows Banning Russian LNG as Member States Buy More - The European Parliament approved rules this week allowing the regional bloc’s respective governments to ban Russian LNG imports on a national level by preventing Russian firms from booking gas infrastructure capacity. - Meanwhile, Europe’s reliance on Russian LNG has been increasing, according to Kpler data last year saw record imports of liquefied gas with 15.54 million tonnes discharged into EU ports. - In 2024 so far the pace of Russian imports is even higher... Читать дальше...
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has recently weighed buying BP, but talks didn’t go far and ultimately the state firm of the United Arab Emirates decided not to pursue a takeover of the UK supermajor, sources with knowledge of the discussions have told Reuters. ADNOC has recently held preliminary talks with BP and has contacted investment banks for advice on a potential takeover, according to two of Reuters’ sources. The reported approach by ADNOC comes as the U.S. oil and gas industry... Читать дальше...
China’s top economic planning body has finalized plans to create a reserve system for coal production by 2027 to avoid new shortages and ensure stable supply and prices. China aims to have 300 million metric tons of annual “dispatchable” coal production by 2030, according to the plan from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). In 2021, when China was hit by blackouts, the world’s second-largest economy set a goal to have coal reserves stocked at mines, power plants,…
After a string of gains, crude oil prices are set to end this week with a loss on worry that interest rates in key markets will remain high, dampening demand for the commodity. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank both signaled recently they were going to postpone their rate cut plans because of the latest inflation data. In the U.S., the latest CPI report revealed a figure higher than expected for March, at 3.5%, while in the eurozone March inflation surprised positively, at 2.4%. Even so... Читать дальше...
U.S. and Venezuelan government officials met secretly this week ahead of the expiry of oil sanction relief next week. The meeting, in Mexico City, discussed the possibility of reforms in Venezuela, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed sources, with a focus on elections. The United States granted a six-month oil sanction waiver to Caracas last year after the two sides discussed election reforms that would have given Venezuela’s opposition a chance in the upcoming vote in July. However, just months later... Читать дальше...
Iran will respond to the Israeli attack on its consulate in Damascus in such a way as not to escalate the situation in the Middle East. This is the message that Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahian delivered to the United States last Sunday, according to unnamed sources that this week spoke to Reuters. The report comes out a day after one from Bloomberg that said the U.S. and Israel are already bracing for Iran’s response, which they see as imminent, and likely to happen in the next few days. Читать дальше...
Over the past three years, the U.S. energy sector has enjoyed an oil price boom that has been accompanied by soaring crude production. According to data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), crude production climbed from 11.0 mb/d in July to 2020 to an all-time high of 13.3 mb/d in December 2023 as producers ramped up output to meet heightened demand as well as take advantage of high prices in the post-pandemic period. According to commodity analysts at Standard Chartered, the U.S. Читать дальше...
The world's largest crude oil exchange-traded fund has bled over $2 billion in less than a year. And it's not due to investors finding greener pastures elsewhere with other ETFs; it's the siren call of soaring prices that's prompting this mass exodus. The WisdomTree Brent Crude Oil exchange-traded commodity had assets under management of some $2.5 billion last summer, according to Bloomberg. Now, the publication reports, this is down to $396 million, with withdrawals accelerating over the past few days. Читать дальше...
Despite indicating they would refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by the end of this year, the Department of Energy has now canceled solicitations offered last month. Citing rising oil prices, the DOE said, “We will not award the current solicitations for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and will solicit available capacity as market conditions allow.” Three million barrels of oil had been slated for delivery to the Bayou Choctaw SPR site in August and September. The SPR is the world’s largest... Читать дальше...
Via Metal Miner Month-over-month, the Construction MMI (Monthly Metals Index) moved sideways for the fourth month in a row, only sliding down a slight 2.87%. Of all industrial metals, iron ore suffered the worst drop in price by far, hitting a 10-month low before a slight rebound. The main component holding the index up was aluminum 1050 sheet from Europe. The manufacturing boom in the U.S. construction industry continues to aid in the demand for industrial metals like steel and aluminum. However... Читать дальше...
