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Ruble Falls as Oil Offsets Data Hinting Russia Slump Not So Deep

The ruble fell after its biggest advance in two weeks as declining oil prices overshadowed data showing the nation’s economic slowdown isn’t as deep as predicted. The currency retreated as much as 0.7 percent and traded 0.1 percent lower at 55.3780 against the dollar by 3:36 p.m. in Moscow. Turmoil in Greece pushed the price of oil, Russia’s main export earner, down 1 percent in London. Government bonds rose for a second day as the Finance Ministry sold all 15 billion rubles ($271 million) of December 2017 floating-rate notes it offered. While there are almost no direct ties between the Russian financial sector and Greece’s, the ruble has suffered from receding appetite for riskier assets. Data on Wednesday showed a $5 billion upward revision of Russia’s current-account surplus in the first quarter, while the purchasing managers’ index for June rose to 48.7 versus an estimate of 48. Levels under […]

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Russian, Ukrainian gas talks collapse

Natural gas talks between Russia and Ukraine collapse in Vienna after Kiev balks on price offer. File Photo by UPI/Ivan Vakolenko VIENNA, July 1 (UPI) — European leaders said they’d get to work on proposing new strategies after natural gas talks between Russia and Ukraine collapsed in Vienna. European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic met in Vienna with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Demchyshyn and Andriy Kobolev, the chief executive officer at Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz. The energy relationship between Ukraine and Russia has been strained at least since 2006, when Ukrainian debt issues prompted Russian energy company Gazprom to cut gas supplies through Ukraine. The European economy gets about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, though most of that runs through the Soviet-era pipeline network in Ukraine. The European Commission has acted as a mediator to bilateral talks that began in March […]

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Norway: New reserves found in North Sea

Norway confirms minor discovery made by Statoil in frontier territory in the North Sea. Photo courtesy of Statoil. OSLO, Norway, July 1 (UPI) — The Norwegian government confirmed Wednesday oil and gas reserves were discovered in a North Sea area not known previously to contain hydrocarbons. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the nation’s energy regulator, said reserves were discovered in appraisal and wildcat, one drilled in an untapped area, near the existing Gina Krog field in the North Sea. The NPD said the objective of the well was to prove and delineate the potential for commercial volumes of oil and natural gas. For the discovery as a whole, the regulator said it estimated the size of the discovery at between 35 million and 70 million cubic feet of oil equivalent, which would be an average 9.3 million barrels if the entire discovery existed as oil. There was no comment on […]

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Oil falls below $63 as Greece defaults, supply soars

LONDON Oil fell below $63 a barrel on Wednesday after Greece defaulted on its debt to the International Monetary Fund while U.S. and OPEC production hit new highs, prompting concern about risks to the economic outlook and ample supply. As well as Greece becoming the first developed economy to default on an IMF loan, oil came under pressure from a surprise gain in U.S. crude stocks reported by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the prospect of higher Iranian oil exports. Brent crude was down 70 cents at $62.89 a barrel at 0847 GMT. U.S. crude fell 89 cents to $58.58. Both contracts made gains on Tuesday. World powers and Iran are holding talks in Vienna on their nuclear dispute. A deadline for an agreement, which could pave the way for higher Iranian oil exports, has been extended until July 7. "Greece is an additional risk factor, but I […]

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Oil Gives up Overnight Gains on U.S. Inventory, China Data

By Eric Yep Crude-oil futures fell sharply in Asian trade Wednesday, giving up overnight gains on bearish U.S. oil supply data and soft manufacturing numbers from China. Investors are also keeping an eye on the Greece debt crisis–after it defaulted on its payment to the International Monetary Fund–and the Iranian nuclear deal after the deadline for talks were extended. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August traded at $58.78 a barrel at 0353 GMT, down $0.69 in the Globex electronic session. August Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.52 to $63.07 a barrel. U.S. oil prices ended 24.9% higher in the second quarter ended June 30, its largest on-quarter percentage gain since the second quarter of 2009. Nymex oil futures however lost 1.4% in June. Similarly, Brent crude gained 15.4% in the second quarter, its largest on-quarter percentage gain since […]

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Oil holds below three-week lows as Greek enters second day of bank shutdown

TOKYO Oil futures hovered below three-week lows on Tuesday as investors waited for developments in Greece following a bank shutdown, keeping them away from riskier assets and putting Brent crude on course for a second month of declines. Brent crude futures were down 3 cents at $61.98 a barrel at 0624 GMT, after falling to $62.01 on Monday, their weakest finish since June 5. The contract is heading for its second straight monthly decline and is down almost 5.5 percent in June. U.S. crude dropped 14 cents to $58.19, having closed down $1.30 at $58.33 a barrel, its lowest settlement since June 8. It is set for its first monthly decline in three and has fallen about 3.5 percent this month. "Greece is still the word," said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney. "That story doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon." Tens of thousands of Greeks […]

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Natural Gas Reverses Losses on Hotter Weather Forecast

By Timothy Puko and Nicole Friedman Natural-gas futures erased their morning losses Tuesday to trade higher after a midday weather forecast showed hotter temperatures than previously expected. Natural gas for August delivery recently traded up 1.2 cent, or 0.4%, to $2.817 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from as low as $2.752/mmBtu earlier in the session. Forecasts for colder-than-normal weather in the next two weeks have weighed on natural-gas prices. Cool weather in the summer reduces demand for gas-powered electricity to run air-conditioning units. The most widely watched U.S. government forecast had been calling for a "cooler trough of air" extending from Ontario to the Southeast U.S. in the next two weeks, but a midday update now shows that trough moving further east, said Aaron Calder, analyst at Gelber & Associates in Houston. The new forecast "looks very warm," he said, though he […]

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New oil bull market in sight as Brazil, Iraq cut output targets

LONDON Massive downward revisions to oil output in Brazil and Iraq have increased the risks for oil markets of going from the current feast to famine within just a few years, leading to a price spike that would give a new boost to the U.S. shale industry. Brazil and Iraq had been expected to add over 2 million barrels per day to global supply by 2020 and another 2.5 million by 2025, becoming the two biggest contributors to help meet rising global demand, according to the long-term forecast of the International Energy Agency. With Brazil’s Petrobras cutting this week its five-year production outlook by 1.4 million bpd in response to low oil prices and the ongoing corruption probe and Iraq renegotiating deals with oil majors to reflect "more realistic" output targets, the current glut in the oil markets is poised to end sooner than expected. "All these project cancellations […]

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Remember All That Oil in Storage? Here It Comes

Refineries around the world are using more crude oil. To get the cheapest supplies around, they don’t have to look any further than their own storage tanks. When a global glut of crude oil sent prices plunging to near-six-year lows in the first quarter of the year, refineries started stocking up. The market gave them an incentive to do so: Oil prices for later in 2015 were higher than immediate prices, making refiners and traders eager to buy crude for cheap and store it to use or sell in the future. The strategy worked. As more and more oil entered storage , pushing U.S. inventories to the highest level in more than 80 years and prompting some companies to stash oil on ships in the ocean, the amount of crude immediately available to buyers fell. Add in a cold winter that spurred demand, and prices rallied. But with the […]

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Oil Prices Gain in Second Quarter

A derrick hand with Raven Drilling in the Bakken Shale formation outside Watford City, N.D…. U.S. oil prices rose on Tuesday, posting a 25% quarterly gain, after Iran and six world powers extended the deadline for nuclear talks until July 7. Prices posted their largest single-quarter percentage gain since 2009 on expectations of a drop in U.S. production and growing demand after slumping to near-six-year lows earlier in the year. So far, however, U.S. oil output hasn’t slowed, and prices have stabilized around $60 a barrel in recent weeks as traders looked for direction. The U.S. benchmark fell 1.4% this month. The Iranian talks, aimed at blocking the country’s path to a nuclear weapon in exchange for lifting international sanctions, could eventually allow Iran to increase its oil exports. A failure to reach a deal would be supportive for oil prices, because it would keep hundreds of thousands of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple