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Oil Up 3% As US Jobs Data Hits Dollar; Tumbles On Week
Oil settled up nearly 3 percent on Friday after a weak U.S. jobs report hurt the dollar and boosted commodities, but crude prices still ended the week sharply lower on concerns about oversupply. U.S. employment growth eased more than expected in August after two straight months of robust gains, the report showed. That initially led to doubts that the Federal Reserve would hike interest rates at its Sept. 20-21 meeting. The dollar, however, rose later in the day on bets that a September rate hike remained on the cards. Crude prices were also supported by a steadying U.S. oil rig count. After being unchanged last week, the oil rig count provided by industry firm Baker Hughes rose by just one this week as crude prices held below the key $50-a-barrel mark that analysts and drillers said made drilling more viable. “Notwithstanding today’s dollar-driven […]
Oil Prices Rally As OPEC Deal Seems More Likely
After selling off strongly so far this week, oil prices are mustering a bounce into the holiday weekend, encouraged higher by an underwhelming employment report and an (initial) strong sell-off in the dollar. Even though the dollar has reversed course, oil is holding onto gains. Hark, here are four things to consider in oil markets today: 1) Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday to discuss how to boost cooperation between the two nations. Saudi Aramco has been leasing storage capacity from Japan since 2010, currently leasing ~6.29 million barrels of storage capacity on Japan’s Okinawa islands. One result from the latest meeting between the two nations is an agreement for Saudi Aramco to increase its storage on Okinawa by roughly 2 million barrels – bolstering its position in Asia. Saudi is already Japan’s […]
Iran planning more oil drilling
One of the first oil fields likely on tap for post-sanctions contracts in Iran is on schedule for further exploration and production work, a director said. SHANA, the Iranian oilministry’s news website, said the National Iranian Drilling Company secured the right to drill 20 wells over the next two years in the South Azaegan oil field. China National Petroleum Corp was contracted to help develop the Azadegan complex, one of Iran’s largest oil fields. It straddles the border with Iraq. The Iranian side complained about the lack of the deployment of drilling rigs from China and the CNPC contract for development was later torn up because the company wasn’t meeting Iran’s expectations […]
Venezuela’s Oil Output Set To Collapse As 1 Million Take To The Streets
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Caracas on September 1, demanding the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Estimates peg the number of protesters at about 1 million, clogging the capital’s streets amid the country’s worst economic crisis in its modern history. “We are going to defeat hunger, crime, inflation and corruption. They’ve done nothing in 17 years. Their time is finished,” one protester said according to a Reuters report . Venezuela’s economic crisis has morphed into a political and humanitarian disaster. The collapse of oil prices has hollowed out the country’s sole source of export revenue. But the problem for Venezuela is that a spiral of debt and deprivation will simply fuel further desperation. Oil exports have already declined by about 300,000 barrels per day as of June from a year earlier as PDVSA fails to keep up with maintenance and electricity blackouts knocked […]
U.S., China Agree on Implementing Paris Climate Change Pact
U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday outlined new plans for expanding their joint efforts on climate change, showcasing one of the few areas of agreement in an otherwise tense relationship between the two leaders. U.S. officials detailed the agreement reached by Messrs. Obama and Xi ahead of what is likely to be their final meeting before a new president enters the White House in January. The new steps include formal adoption by both the U.S. and China of the international climate-change agreement reached in Paris in December 2015, as well as a road map for achieving emissions reductions in commercial aircraft and for phasing out hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, a potent group of gases that are linked to climate change but aren’t covered by the Paris agreement. The moves cap three years of efforts by Messrs. Obama and Xi to advance climate-change initiatives, following […]
