Europe Gets Serious About Lockdowns as Italy Slows Deaths
On the same day Italy finally saw a dip in the number of deaths from the coronavirus, the U.K. was forced into a full lockdown with Europe still scrambling for new Continue Reading
Oil Drifts Lower as Hopes for OPEC-Texas Production Truce Fade
Oil dropped toward the lowest level since 2003 as prospects for a deal between OPEC and Texas to limit production appeared to fade, while a U.S. coronavirus rescue package ran Continue Reading
Brent crude extends fall as coronavirus shutdowns sap demand
Brent crude prices extended falls on Monday amid more action by governments to contain the global coronavirus outbreak that has slashed the demand outlook for oil and threatened a worldwide Continue Reading
Explaining the Global Oil Rout – 54% Demand, 46% Supply: Chart
Lower oil prices typically boost global growth, but the recent decline to an 18-year low will likely provide less support than usual. Bloomberg Economics estimates weak demand was responsible for more Continue Reading
Coronavirus Outbreaks Could Become Seasonal Woe, Some Researchers Find
As Covid-19 circles the globe, the most severe outbreaks so far clustered in areas of cool, dry seasonal weather, according to four independent research groups in the U.S., Australia and Continue Reading
Skies clear as more flights grounded by growing coronavirus curbs
Widening curbs on travel to contain the spread of the coronavirus led airlines to ramp up flight cancellations on Monday, with new restrictions spanning Australia, New Zealand, the United Arab Continue Reading
Aviation Fuel, Coronavirus News: Glut Overwhelms Storage
Only about 20% of land-based storage for the product remains — about 50 million barrels — while airlines cut flights, according to Vienna-based consultant JBC Energy GmbH. A collapse in air Continue Reading
There’s Plenty of Food in the World, Just Not Where It’s Needed
Global warehouses are stuffed with frozen cuts of pork, wheels of cheese and bags of rice. But as the coronavirus snarls logistical operations, the question becomes: How does all that Continue Reading
Saudi Finance Minister Expects Budget Deficit to Reach 9%
Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan speaks at the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank heads. SPA Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said he estimated the country’s budget Continue Reading
Iran’s coronavirus deaths rise to 1,556, infections exceed 20,000: health ministry
Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose by more than 100 to 1,556 on Saturday and the total number of people infected now exceeds 20,000, a health ministry official Continue Reading
Saudi Aramco vows stable oil supplies even as borders, transit routes shut
Saudi Aramco vowed there will be no disruption in its oil and gas supplies to customers even as international borders have closed and transportation venues cut off. Receive daily email Continue Reading
Trump’s Ultimate Weapon To End The Oil War
U.S. President Donald Trump is facing increasing calls from some U.S. senators and congressmen to pressure Saudi Arabia into ending the oil price war, with one of his own Republican Continue Reading
Saudi Arabia’s Oil Price War Is Backfiring
Saudi Arabia and Russia must have anticipated an oil price crash when they broke up their three-year-long bromance to push up oil prices. Two weeks later and nearly 4 million Continue Reading
Gharraf field offline after coronavirus evacuation
Petronas withdraws all foreign staff due to COVID-19; Iraq can replace the lost production with spare capacity at other fields. In mid-July 2019, workers from the state-owned Iraqi Drilling Company Continue Reading
India goes into lockdown as coronavirus spreads
India is locking down large swaths of the country until at least the end of the month, as it seeks to control the spread of the deadly coronavirus following a Continue Reading
U.S. Targets Venezuela’s Maduro Regime With Fresh Charges, Sanctions
The U.S. quietly unsealed criminal cases against two former officials at Venezuela’s state oil monopoly this month as part of what American officials say is a new round of charges Continue Reading
China scrambles to curb rise in imported coronavirus cases
China on Sunday reported 46 new cases of coronavirus, the fourth straight day with an increase, with all but one of those imported from overseas, and further stepped up measures Continue Reading
Offshore driller Valaris gears up for possible debt restructuring: sources
Offshore oil driller Valaris PLC is exploring debt restructuring options as it grapples with a rig accident and a broader collapse in energy prices, people familiar with the matter said Continue Reading
Tens of Thousands Are Getting Laid Off in U.S. Shale Patch
One of the most painful busts in the history of crude oil happened just six years ago when a sharp price drop cost 200,000 roughnecks, almost half the entire workforce, Continue Reading
U.S. In Lockdown: The Biggest Threat To The Oil Industry Ever?
The SARS CoV2 virus that is behind the COVID-19 pandemic has finally ravaged the United States, and cities and states are reacting to its brutality by shutting stuff down. As Continue Reading
Ohio, Louisiana become latest U.S. states to declare coronavirus lockdowns
As U.S. cases of coronavirus spiked on Sunday, Ohio and Louisiana became the latest states to announce broad lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus with nearly one in Continue Reading
U.S. Recession Risks and Depression Fears: Coronavirus News
The U.S. is entering a recession. The ultimate fear is that could turn into a protracted malaise that has some flavor of a depression. That’s far from the base case, with Continue Reading
Virus News: Fed’s Bullard Says Jobless Rate May Soar to 30%
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard predicted the U.S. unemployment rate may hit 30% in the second quarter because of shutdowns to combat the coronavirus, with an Continue Reading
Coronavirus and Oil-Price Plunge Buries Shale and Occidental’s Big Bet
Just weeks ago, Occidental Petroleum Corp. Chief Executive Vicki Hollub sought to reassure investors that her bold bet on U.S. shale oil—a $38 billion deal for rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp.—hadn’t Continue Reading
Not Even Higher Oil Prices Can Save U.S. Shale
The U.S. shale industry is burning through cash so fast that even the state of Texas is looking at government rationed production targets. Texas Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton laid out Continue Reading
Coronavirus forces states to order nearly one in three Americans to stay home
Nearly one in three Americans was under orders on Sunday to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as Ohio, Louisiana and Delaware became the latest states Continue Reading
U.S. Recession Risks and Depression Fears: Coronavirus News
The U.S. is entering a recession. The ultimate fear is that could turn into a protracted malaise that has some flavor of a depression. That’s far from the base case, with Continue Reading
U.S. OIL PRICE COLLAPSE = U.S. ECONOMIC COLLAPSE
The oil price collapse is a bad omen for much worse things to follow. The global contagion is impacting the U.S. economy and the domestic oil industry far greater than Continue Reading
Greece imposes lockdown after coronavirus infections jump
Greece announced a lockdown on Sunday, restricting movement from Monday morning with only a few exceptions, to combat the spread of coronavirus. “It is maybe the last step, one that Continue Reading
Russian Energy Minister Novak Said to Meet Oil CEOs Monday
Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak will meet executives from the nation’s key oil companies Monday as global crude prices hover at their lowest in nearly two decades, according to a Continue Reading
Russia Moves In On European Gas Markets As Oil Prices Crash
Russia sees a silver lining in the oil price collapse—it now believes that the oil price war will help it win the war for natural gas market share in Europe. Continue Reading
Refiners Race To Reduce Rates As Fuel Demand Falls Off A Cliff
Refining operations in Europe and elsewhere in the world are being curtailed as gasoline and jet fuel demand is falling off a cliff due to the enormous demand destruction in Continue Reading
OIL FUTURES: Oil settles sharply lower as COVID-19 containment efforts spread
Oil prices finished the week lower amid stepped-up US COVID-19 containment efforts, and a lack of clarity regarding US efforts to bail out domestic oil producers. April WTI settled down Continue Reading
Oil Prices Retreat After Massive Rally
Following a rally early on Friday supported by U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting he could intervene in the ongoing Saudi-Russia oil price war and by a flow of stimulus from Continue Reading
Oil Suffers Biggest Weekly Loss Since 1991 With Demand in Focus
Oil capped its biggest weekly decline in almost three decades as concern that the collapse of global fuel demand will deepen outweighed talks between OPEC and Texas’s energy regulator. Futures in Continue Reading
The Very Real Prospect Of $5 Oil
The rebound in oil prices on Thursday didn’t last long as bearish sentiment once again took hold on Friday morning, with some analysts contemplating the possibility of $5 WTI. Oil Continue Reading
Oil Glut Could Grow To 1 Billion Barrels
Crude oil futures are set to finish the week sharply lower despite a two-day counter-trend rally on Thursday and Friday. The price action suggests that even tremendous levels of monetary Continue Reading
World’s Top Oil Trader: Global Demand To Plunge More Than 10%
Global oil demand is set to plunge by more than 10 percent from the typical 100-million-bpd consumption, as the raging coronavirus pandemic forces countries into lockdown, according to the world’s Continue Reading
Oil News: Demand Catastrophe Means the Price War is a Sideshow
Imagine U.S. President Donald Trump makes a deal with Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil production. Envisage Washington, Moscow and Riyadh going big, each cutting by one million barrels Continue Reading
We’re Barreling Toward An Epic Glut Of Oil
The world’s crude oil supply is rising even as demand is cratering. Some parts of the economy are grappling with pandemic-driven shortages. The oil industry has the opposite problem: so Continue Reading
Tanker Rates Explode As Markets Brace For Record Oil Glut
The largest oil supply surplus the world has ever seen in a single quarter is about to hit the global market from April, creating an imbalance of around 10 million Continue Reading
U.S. to send senior official to Saudi Arabia for months to help deflate oil price war
The United States believes Saudi Arabia’s flooding of global oil markets compounds the global economic crash at a time of a crisis caused by coronavirus and intends to send a Continue Reading
OPEC-Shale Peace Prospects Crumble Hours After Historic Call
Just hours after one of the most powerful officials in the biggest U.S. oil state was invited to OPEC’s inner sanctum in June, propspects for a rapprochement between two historically Continue Reading
OPEC, U.S. Shale Producers Open Talks Amid Oil Rout
U.S. oil industry regulators opened a dialogue with OPEC in talks that could help foster a truce between the world’s three largest oil producers and potentially resolve a Saudi-Russian price Continue Reading
OPEC+ losses influence on the market, but participants should continue to talk: Sechin
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said Friday that OPEC+ has lost its ability to influence the market, but the world’s biggest oil producers should continue to talk. Receive daily email alerts, Continue Reading
OPEC, U.S. Shale Producers Open Talks Amid Oil Rout
U.S. antitrust laws prevent a formal deal and there is no suggestion the two sides would coordinate on production decisions. But the Texas regulator is considering curtailing output in America’s Continue Reading
Do Saudi Arabia And Russia Really Want To Kill U.S. Shale?
Since 2016, as an informal leader of the 13-strong non-OPEC group, Russia has been instrumental in the pricing of oil as Saudi Arabia, leading producer in the Organization of Petroleum Continue Reading
U.S. to Iran: Coronavirus won’t save you from sanctions
The United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: the spread of the coronavirus will not save it from U.S. sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and Continue Reading
Rouhani urges Americans to call on U.S. to lift sanctions as Iran fights coronavirus: state media
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday urged Americans to call on the U.S. government to lift sanctions as Iran fights the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, state media Continue Reading
Iran president expects coronavirus restrictions to ease within three weeks
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that social distancing measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the country, including travel restrictions, will apply for only two to three weeks Continue Reading