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Pickens: Oil Could Hit $100 A Barrel

Pickens: Oil Could Hit $100 A Barrel thumbnail Amid falling oil prices mostly due to fears of oversupply and a surging U.S. dollar, American business magnate and financier T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday that oil prices could reach $100 a barrel by the end of next year. The 86-year-old billionaire, who chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management, also revised his previous forecast in which he said that the prices would hit the $100 mark as early as this year. According to Pickens, the idea of “peak oil” — when oil production goes into an irreversible decline — should not be ignored as regions other than the U.S. are experiencing decline in their oil output, Reuters reported. “I think you could very well be at $100 a barrel by the end of 2016,” Pickens said at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. Although oil prices briefly recovered […]

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Oil Markets Volatile As Dollar Falls And Supplies Seen Rising

ENLARGE Oil storage in tanks on the edge of town in Cushing, Okla. “U.S. crude stocks will build through May, but there is plenty of storage,” said Morgan Stanley. Photo: Associated Press LONDON—Oil markets were volatile on Wednesday with major price benchmarks diverging as investors weighed a weaker dollar against expectations that U.S. oil supplies will hit a fresh record. Brent crude for delivery in May rose 0.6% to $55.42 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures traded at $47.43 a barrel, down 0.2% from Tuesday’s settlement. Investors were awaiting the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that is expected to show another large build in oil inventories last week. Inventories in the U.S. are already running at an 80-year high and analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal forecast another gain of 5.6 million barrels. Late […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil rebounds towards $57 as weaker dollar overshadows China slowdown

LONDON (Reuters) – Brent crude reversed early losses to trade back towards $57 a barrel on Tuesday, as a weaker dollar overshadowed signs of slowing growth in China and Saudi Arabian oil production close to an all-time high. The dollar slipped 0.25 percent against the euro, extending losses from the previous session and providing a boost to dollar-priced commodities, which tend to move inversely to the U.S. currency. Brent futures LCOc1 for May delivery were trading up 64 cents at $56.56 by 0620 EDT, while U.S. crude CLc1 rose 60 cents to $48.05 a barrel. Its discount to Brent CL-LCO1=R widened to $8.51 a barrel. Gains were capped by data showing factory activity in China, the world’s second-largest economy and top oil importer, slipped in March. The flash HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index came in at 49.2, below the 50-point level that separates growth from contraction. Economists polled by Reuters […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Prices Retreat as Dollar Gets Boost

An oil rig in the North Sea. ENLARGE Photo: Zuma Press U.S. oil prices barely held to small gains and global prices fell Tuesday as a revived dollar, a growing glut and pessimistic signs for demand all weighed on the market. Light, sweet crude for May delivery settled up six cents, or 0.1%, to $47.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had been as up as much as $1.11 to $48.56 a barrel Tuesday morning. Brent, the global benchmark, lost 81 cents, or 1.5%, to $55.11 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. It had been up as much as much as 87 cents to $56.79 a barrel Tuesday morning. Oil prices moved in tandem with the dollar, a common phenomenon, especially in the past four months, analysts said. Dollar-priced commodities like oil become more expensive for holders of other currencies as the dollar appreciates. And a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural Gas Rebounds on Cold Start to Spring

By Timothy Puko Natural-gas prices inched up Tuesday after forecasts showed a colder-than-expected start for spring and suggested a lingering demand for gas heat. Natural gas for April delivery settled up 5.3 cents, or 1.9%, at $2.786 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gains snapped a three-session losing streak and reversed losses from Monday’s session. Snow and cold have traders thinking about lingering heating demand, brokers and analysts said. About half of all U.S. homes use natural gas for heating fuel, making winter weather one of the biggest drivers of demand. "It’s probably just enough to keep this market from really tanking again," said Frank Clements, co-owner of Meridian Energy Brokers Inc. outside New York. "We’re at a really good price level, maybe right where we should be." After a steep fall for the better part of seven months, natural-gas prices have stabilized. […]

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Global demand to help oil prices despite U.S. glut-senior Gulf OPEC delegate

RIYADH (Reuters) – Stronger-than-expected global oil demand should help support crude prices at around $55-$60 a barrel in the next two months despite some signs of a growing glut in the United States,‎ a senior Gulf OPEC delegate told Reuters on Tuesday. The comments appear to counter some market forecasts that the U.S. oil glut may push prices to as low as $20-$30 and are a sign that the core Gulf OPEC members remain confident about their strategy of defending market share. "Global demand is definitely growing much stronger than expected. In December, January, and especially February ‎it was beyond what forecasts anticipated," the delegate said. Low oil prices may have encouraged demand to pick up particularly in the United States but also in Asia, the Gulf delegate, who declined to be identified, added. Oil prices are expected to fluctuate around $55-$60 a barrel through April, when they may […]

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Progress in Iran talks puts oil traders on edge

Talk of progress in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers has had oil traders on edge. With large amounts of Iranian oil already in storage , an injection of hundreds of thousands of barrels a day into the oil market already struggling with a crude overhang could depress prices further. The prospect of a wave of Iranian crude exports has already hit internationally traded Brent: after rebounding to $60 a barrel last month, it now hovers around $55 a barrel amid expectations of a deal by March 31. “There is nothing that cannot be resolved,” Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, said on Saturday, according to the Iranian state news agency. But as negotiators from Iran and the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany, the so-called P5+1 group, reconvene this week, questions remain around what any deal, full or partial, could mean for the oil market. Sanctions […]

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In Nuclear Talks, U.S. Wants Clear Deal, While Iran Favors General One

Photo Secretary of State John Kerry, center, in Lausanne, Switzerland, last week. He returns for more talks on Wednesday. Credit Brian Snyder/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images PARIS — If an agreement to limit Iran ’s nuclear capability is reached by deadline in the next seven days, one thing may be missing: an actual written accord, signed by the Iranians. Over the past few weeks, Iran has increasingly resisted any kind of formal “framework” agreement at this stage in the negotiations, preferring a more general statement of “understanding” followed by a final accord in June, according to Western diplomats involved in the talks. Should that position hold — one of the many unknowns of the coming days — the United States and its five negotiating partners may find themselves in the uncomfortable position of describing the accord as they understand it while the Iranians go home to offer their own […]

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Iraqi Forces Map Plan Against ISIS, With Strategic Use of Militias

Photo Shiite and Sunni fighters joined Iraqi forces against ISIS outside former President Saddam Hussein’s palace near Tikrit. Credit Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters BAGHDAD — As a small force of Islamic State militants holds out in parts of Tikrit for a fourth week, Iraqi forces have been compelled to shift tactics, officials say: Rather than storming in to clear the city at any cost, the security forces are trying to seal off the area and begin preparing for even more challenging battles to the west and north. The Iraqi forces’ progress has put them closer to the doorstep of Nineveh Province, where the city of Mosul looms as the most important battle against the Islamic State. But the hard lessons of the Tikrit offensive, with a heavy cost in casualties for the Shiite militiamen and soldiers involved, have Iraqi officials thinking more cautiously about their next steps. To that end, officials […]

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Iran Has a Little Surprise for Oil Market

Technicians stand at an oil and methanol installation on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran. The country exports about 1 million to 1.1 million barrels of crude per day, down from 2.5 million before the U.S. and European Union added oil sanctions in mid-2012, IEA data show. Photographer: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty images (Bloomberg) — Lifting oil sanctions on Iran could hit global markets long before the nation starts pumping more crude. That’s because the OPEC member has been stockpiling oil onshore and in supertankers in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While estimates of the hoard by shipbrokers and government officials vary from as little as 7 million barrels to as much as 35 million, Barclays Plc and Societe Generale SA predict this crude would be first to be sold abroad if there’s an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple