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Oil prices dip on ongoing oversupply, economic headwinds
Oil prices held near two-month lows on Monday amid worries that a global crude and refined product glut would weigh on markets for some time to come. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $45.58 per barrel at 0657 GMT, down 11 cents from their previous close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $44.11, down 8 cents a barrel. Both benchmarks were close to two-month lows reached last week. Traders said that ongoing oversupply and growing economic headwinds were weighing on oil. “Sentiment looks to have turned negative,” said Matt Stanley of brokerage Freight Investor Services (FIS) in Dubai, although he added that markets would likely remain volatile. Barclays bank said “global oil demand in Q3 16 is growing at less than one-third the rate it was in Q3 15, weighed down […]
Faulty Data? Why The Oil Glut Could Be Much Smaller Than Believed
The oil price rally came to a quick end in June, topping $50 per barrel but quickly falling back again. Optimism stemming from the four-month rally has vanished, and since June prices have retreated back to $45 per barrel. The main reason for the renewed sense of pessimism comes down to the glut of oil sitting in storage. The U.S. has been dealing with oil stocks at 80-year highs since early 2015, a metric that has become closely watched in the market for signs on whether or not supply and demand are moving closer to balance. After hitting an all-time high earlier this year, crude oil stocks began to decline in May, and although they are still above 500 million barrels, the industry has steadily drawn inventories down from their peak. (Click to enlarge) A more recent worry for the oil markets are the stubbornly high levels of gasoline […]
Russian company Gazprom Neft pumping 67,000 barrels of oil a day in eastern Iraq
Russian oil company Gazprom Neft said nearly half of the total production from an eastern Iraqi oil field came online this year. Photo courtesy of Gazprom Neft KUT, Iraq, July 25 (UPI) — Production momentum at the Badra oil field in eastern Iraq has resulted in almost half of the total volumes emerging this year, Russian company Gazprom Neft said. Gazprom Neft said its Iraqi subsidiary commissioned its 10th production well at the Badra oil field in Wasit province in eastern Iraq, near the border with Iran. “With production volumes at the newly launched well now at 6,527 barrels per day, its commissioning has allowed daily production levels at the field to reach 67,000 barrels,” the company said in a statement. Total production at Badra now stands at 2.9 million barrels of oil, the company said, with almost half of that coming online since the start of 2016. An […]
India mulls merger of 13 state-run firms into oil giant
Should India proceed with a merger of 13 state-held oil companies, the Indian giant would be able to compete with the likes of Rosneft and BP on terms of size. Photo by AzmanMD/Shutterstock India’s government is considering launching talks to merge 13 state-held oil companies into one giant conglomerate that could rival some of the industry’s global giants, India’s Economic Times reported Monday. India’s Cabinet Secretariat has tabled the idea to the oil ministry which has started assessing the prospects of a mega-merger, the ET said, citing sources, adding that the oil ministry had declined to comment on the report. The country’s biggest oil producer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp., as well as Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp., Hindustan Petroleum, GAIL, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, Chennai Petroleum, Numaligarh Refinery and Oil India are said to be subject of the merger idea, according to ET. The government is also […]
Russian economy recovering slowly
With oil holding relatively stable, there are few restrictions on meeting inflationary goals by the end of next year, a Russian finance minister said. “Inflation [in 2016] will be in the range of between 5.5 percent and 6 percent,” Deputy Finance Minister Maxim Oreshkin said Monday. “This is how it is going now.” Crude oil prices moved from above $100 per barrel in 2014 to below $30 per barrel in early 2016 because the global economy was too slow to take on the excess supply on the market. That price collapse hurt economies like Russia that depend in part on oil for revenue. With oil prices holding relatively stable at around $45 per barrel since May, the Central Bank of Russia said […]
