California regulators on Tuesday acknowledged lax oversight by the state had allowed oil and gas industry contamination of protected water aquifers and other threats to public safety, and they pledged Continue Reading
Houston (Platts)–10Mar2015/429 pm EDT/2029 GMT More than 60 ships have been delayed since a section of the Houston Ship Channel was closed Monday following a vessel collision that caused MTBE to spill into the waterway, a Houston Pilots dispatcher said Tuesday. The dispatcher said 35 inbound and 30 outbound vessels were in the queue late Tuesday afternoon. The ship channel is closed to all traffic from the Fred Hartman Bridge to ship channel light 86 while salvage operations continue. US Coast Guard Capt. Brian Penoyer said it was not yet possible to estimate when the section would reopen. Article continues below… Platts Global Alert is a complete real-time information service for the global energy industry, providing breaking reports of deals done, price indicators for crude and products and more than 200 end-of-day assessments. "I’d like to give an estimate that would be helpful, but we have to proceed step […]
Washington (Platts)–10Mar2015/432 pm EDT/2032 GMT The US Energy Information Administration on Tuesday nearly tripled its forecast for the 2015 Brent-WTI spread to $7.35/b, largely due to a glut of US crude production. The 2015 spread, which EIA in February forecast would be $2.54/b, was widened due to "continuing large builds in US crude oil inventories, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub," the agency said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook. US commercial crude oil inventories increased to a record 444 million barrels at the end of February, up 50 million barrels since the end of 2014, EIA said. US crude storage capacity is now 62% full, compared with 48% full at the same point a year ago, EIA said. "US commercial crude oil inventories, which are already at the highest level since 1930, are expected to continue growing over the next two months," EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski said […]
Highlights North Sea Brent crude oil prices averaged $58/barrel (bbl) in February, an increase of $10/bbl from the January average, and the first monthly average price increase since June 2014. The price increase reflects news of falling U.S. crude oil rig counts and announced reductions in capital expenditures by major oil companies, along with lower-than-expected Iraqi crude oil exports. EIA forecasts that Brent crude oil prices will average $59/bbl in 2015, $2/bbl higher than projected in last month’s STEO, and $75/bbl in 2016. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices in 2015 and 2016 are expected to average $7/bbl and $5/bbl, respectively, below Brent. The Brent-WTI spread for 2015 is more than twice the projection in last month’s STEO, reflecting continuing large builds in U.S. crude oil inventories, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub. The current values of futures and options contracts continue to suggest very high uncertainty in the […]
Streak of steady increases in prices at the pump tapering off, motor club AAA reports. UPI/Bill Greenblatt AAA reports a national average retail price of $2.45 per gallon. That’s down a fraction of a cent from Monday’s price, which marked a formal end to the 40-day streak in price increases. U.S. gasoline prices fell in parallel with oil prices last year. A record-breaking streak in falling prices at the pump ended in late January when prices started to move above the floor price of $2.04 per gallon nationally. Oil prices at the end of January also reached their historic bottom and started to move back above the $50 per barrel mark. U.S. refineries at the beginning of February start a regular maintenance period as they shift from producing a winter blend of gasoline to a summer blend, which is more expensive to produce because of steps needed to prevent […]
Fires tied to derailment of train carrying crude oil through Ontario extinguished and traffic to resume through region. Photo: Daniel J. Graeber The last of the fires tied to the derailment of a train carrying crude oil through Ontario have been extinguished, local officials said. A train carrying crude oil on a line operated by Canadian National Railway Co. derailed during the weekend in Gogama, Ontario. CN said a nearby bridge was damaged in the derailment, and five of the cars crashed into an area river. Some of the fires tied to the crash were allowed to burn out on their own. The village of Gogama said in a late Monday update rail cars were pulled from the river and rail traffic was expected to resume by Tuesday afternoon. "CN crews and external specialist firefighters extinguished the last of the fires at the Gogama derailment site," the village said. […]
(Bloomberg) — OAO Lukoil fell to a five-week low, leading a drop in U.S.-traded Russian energy stocks as oil prices declined and separatists in Ukraine traded blame with the government over cease-fire violations. Lukoil, the country’s second-largest oil producer, slid 3.7 percent to $43.60 as of 12:51 p.m. in New York after dropping 3.7 percent in London. A Bloomberg gauge of the U.S.-traded Russian stocks fell 2.2 percent, reducing this year’s gain to 14 percent. Stocks retreated as oil dropped for a fifth day, the longest streak of losses since mid-December, amid signs a global supply glut will persist. The Bloomberg Russia-US Equity Index had advanced 25 percent this year through March 5 as Brent crude stabilized at around $60 a barrel. It touched $56.81 today. A military spokesman said insurgents broke the terms of a peace accord in eastern Ukraine, while the rebels accused the government of firing […]
The world’s two biggest oil firms, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell, may withstand the oil price collapse better than their rivals because they are closer to finishing expensive Continue Reading
(Reuters) – U.S. crude’s discount to benchmark Brent oil has narrowed by about a third from 13-month highs hit two weeks ago but the spread could widen again from a combination of chart-inspired trades and fundamentals pointing to U.S. oil oversupply. Since oil prices began tumbling in June, London-traded Brent has often held up better than U.S. crude, save on a few occasions, the most notable in January when the gap between the two hit a 4-1/2-year low of around $1 a barrel. By end-February, the Brent-U.S. crude spread, one of the highest volume trades in oil, had widened to a 13-month high of $13. Technical trading patterns now show it headed toward $15, a level it was last at in mid-January 2014. According to Elliott wave and Fibonacci ratio patterns, the spread should widen to an area between $14.24 and $16.81, after a renewed push past $13 last […]
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Energy Information Administration revised upward its 2015 domestic oil production outlook, but lowered its 2016 forecast because it expects the slump in global prices to weigh on the country’s shale boom next year. Expected total oil production in 2015 will rise to 9.35 million barrels per day, slightly higher than the 9.3 million bpd forecast last month, the EIA said on Tuesday in its monthly short-term energy outlook. The revision comes a day after the EIA released data showing that oil production from U.S. shale fields will grow at its lowest pace in over four years starting in April, on the back of low prices and company spending cuts. An EIA spokesman said the revision is due to an increase in baseline expectations for the fourth quarter and to production in the Gulf of Mexico. Offshore production in the Gulf is more resistant […]
