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U.S. Oil Prices Soar

Oil futures soared Friday as surging markets for refined gasoline and diesel helped drive crude higher, with traders looking past a fall in U.S. drilling activity that was more modest than expected. The benchmark U.S. oil contract gained $1.59 or 3.3% to settle at $49.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global Brent contract rose $2.53 or 4.2% to settle at $62.58 a barrel. Oil-field services company Baker Hughes Inc. said its count of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. fell by 33 this week to 986, slipping below 1,000 for the first time since June 2011. Though that number is down 31% from a year ago, the weekly decline fell short of what analysts said would be necessary to have a substantial effect. Research consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates said the weekly count would have to fall by at least 50 to affect the market. […]

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Oil set for biggest monthly rise in 6 years

A CNPC "nodding donkey" oil pump pumps oil at sunset in an oilfield outside Daqing, Heilongjiang province, China, on July 13, 2006. PetroChina Co., the nation’s largest oil producer, fell in Hong Kong trading after Warren Buffett’sBerkshire Hathaway Inc. reduced its stake. Photographer: Lucas Schifres/Bloomberg News. Brent crude futures were primed for their biggest monthly rise since May 2009 on the back of upbeat demand coinciding with supply disruptions in big oil producing countries. ICE April Brent rose $2.53 to settle at $62.58 a barrel on Friday. More On this topic IN Commodities After seven months of losses, the international crude marker was up 18 per cent in February – the highest monthly rise in almost six years. Its US counterpart, Nymex April West Texas Intermediate, rose $1.59 to $49.76 a barrel. It also notched its first monthly gain since June with a 3 per cent rise. Lower prices […]

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Oil May Fall Again Says Analyst Who Predicted ’09 Rebound

A pumpjack operates in the foreground of a crude oil drilling rig outside Williston, North Dakota. The price of oil collapsed about 60 percent from June to January as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained production and the U.S. pumped at the fastest pace in three decades. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Oil prices could drop again later this year as a supply glut persists, according to Jason Kenney, a Banco Santander SA analyst who accurately predicted a rebound in prices after the 2008 slump. The current oil shock caused by the boom in U.S. shale production is reminiscent of the mid-1980s, when development of fields in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico caused a supply glut, Kenney, the head of European oil and gas equity research at the Spanish bank, said by phone from Edinburgh Thursday. It differs from the 2008 collapse, which was caused […]

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Natural Gas Bounces After Prior-Day Selloff

By Christian Berthelsen Natural-gas prices bounced off a two-week low on Friday as updated weather forecasts called for a colder-than-expected blast over much of the middle of the U.S. next week. The front-month April contract for natural gas rose 3.7 cents or 1.4% to settle at $2.7340 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices in the market had fallen more than 8% in the past week as withdrawals from gas in storage to meet heating demand fell less than expected. U.S. natural-gas stockpiles fell by 219 billion cubic feet in the week ended Feb. 20, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday, compared with the 241-bcf draw that was predicted in a survey of analysts and traders by The Wall Street Journal. Though a late-winter blast of cold air is driving demand, it has been more than made up for by surging gas production, […]

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Airstrikes, Oil Prices Hit Islamic State’s Funding

ENLARGE An aircraft of the United Arab Emirates takes off from a base in Jordan on Feb. 15 before raids against Islamic State positions. Airstrikes have managed to disrupt the militant group’s ability to deliver oil to the black market. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images PARIS—Airstrikes against Islamic State militants and falling oil prices have hurt the group’s ability to fund operations across Iraq and Syria, according to an international agency that fights terror financing. In a report issued Friday, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, said U.S.-led airstrikes targeting refineries and transport convoys have managed to disrupt Islamic State’s ability to deliver oil to the black market. Islamic State’s “ability to efficiently extract, refine and sell petroleum and petroleum products from the territory in which it operates has significantly diminished,” the report said. Bank looting, kidnapping and ransom have helped offset the loss of oil revenue, FATF […]

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Iraq Takes Second Spot Among China Oil Sellers as Russia Cedes

(Bloomberg) — Iraq overtook Angola and Russia to become China’s second-largest oil supplier in January as imports from the Middle Eastern country rose to a record. Inbound shipments from Iraq jumped 44 percent to 3.4 million metric tons, or 803,000 barrels a day, data from the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs showed Friday. That’s the highest in records going back to May 2008, and made the nation the largest supplier after Saudi Arabia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. China is benefiting from record discounts offered by crude producers as they compete for market share amid a global oversupply. Oil demand in the world’s largest energy user is forecast to be steady, and additional purchases from one country will be at the expense of another, said Gao Jian, an analyst at consultancy SCI International in Shandong, China. “China’s strategy is simply to buy oil from wherever it’s available and […]

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Pemex Negotiates Lower Rig Rates as Crude Collapse Hurts Profit

(Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos is negotiating reduced rig rates with all of its providers after the state-owned oil producer posted a ninth straight quarterly loss on slumping crude prices. Pemex is in talks with oil service and jack-up rig providers to reduce daily rates after the board approved cutting more than $4 billion from its 2015 budget last week. The Mexico City-based company will seek cuts that will probably be less than the 35 percent to 40 percent reductions recommended by consulting firm IHS Inc., said Pemex’s exploration and production director. “We have talked with service companies and agreed that actions need to be taken in order to reduce the effect of the impact of the oil price reductions,” E&P Head Gustavo Hernandez said Friday on an earnings conference call. Pemex is analyzing a series of actions to reduce spending after reporting a quarterly net loss of $7.75 billion […]

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IMF: Venezuela’s oil economy in dire straits

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Venezuelan economic among the region’s worst hit by the slump in crude oil prices, the International Monetary Fund says. UPI/Gary I Rothstein WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) — Venezuela stands out in terms of regional economies affected most by the weak crude oil market, a research note from the International Monetary Fund said. The price for Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, is up about 20 percent since the beginning of February, but nearly 40 percent below June 2014 levels. The IMF said the low price of crude oil is a net benefit to countries that rely on importers as the savings spills over to consumer pocketbooks. For net exporters, the weak market is creating fiscal pressures . "One country that stands out is Venezuela, which had been experiencing severe economic imbalances before oil prices began to fall and now finds itself in […]

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Pakistan gets ADB loan for LNG port facility

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter Asian Development Bank extends loan to Pakistan to help build LNG facility near Karachi. UPI/Stephen Shaver MANILA, Feb. 27 (UPI) — The Asian Development Bank said Friday it was supporting efforts to help Pakistan build its first liquefied natural gas terminal with a $30 million loan. Pakistani company Engro Corp. will get funding from the ADB to build the regasification terminal at a port near Karachi. The plant will be able to convert as much as 3 million tons of LNG per year to gas for use in state power plants. ADB investment specialist Mohammed Azim Hashimi said the loan would help Pakistan build a cleaner, more efficient and more diverse power sector . "Pakistan urgently needs to utilize its existing power generation capacity fully, while reducing its reliance on costly imported diesel fuel for electricity generation," he said in a statement. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple