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Saudi Arabia Pumps Oil Flat Out in Citi, Goldman’s New Oil Order

Not content with the blow it’s dealt to U.S. oil drillers, Saudi Arabia is set to escalate the battle for market share by raising production to maximum levels. The world’s largest oil exporter has already increased output to a 30-year high of 10.3 million barrels a day in a bid to check growth from nations including the U.S., Canada and Brazil. It will add even more to the global glut, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Citigroup Inc. predicts the kingdom will push toward its maximum daily capacity, which the bank estimates at about 11 million barrels, in the second half of 2015. Saudi Arabia steered the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in November to protect its market share in the face of swelling U.S. crude output, rather than cut supplies to shore up prices as it did in the past. Having abandoned the role of swing supplier — […]

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Oil prices expected to ‘improve’ on rising demand, low stocks: Naimi

* Saudi oil minister ‘optimistic’ about future market * Says alliance with Russia to help stabilize market * Riyadh, Moscow also sign nuclear, military deals Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Naimi is confident that oil prices will rise in the coming months given the increase in global demand and the low level of commercial stocks. Naimi, cited by Saudi state news agency SPA late Thursday in St Petersburg, also said a cooperation alliance agreed with Russia earlier in the day would be for the benefit of the stability of the international oil market. Article continues below… The Platts Global Energy Awards is a competitive awards program honoring excellence and accomplishments in the global energy industry. The 17th annual awards will be presented at a black-tie gala, attracting energy industry leaders from around the world on Wednesday, December 9th, 2015 at Cipriani’s in New York. Don’t miss this opportunity to […]

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Saudi Oil Minister to Meet Russia Counterpart as Pact Discussed

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister will meet his Russian counterpart in St. Petersburg to discuss energy, after which the world’s two biggest crude exporters plan on signing a cooperation pact. The countries will sign an agreement after talks Thursday between Saudi Arabia’s Ali Al-Naimi and Alexander Novak, the Russian minister said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He didn’t discuss the meeting’s agenda, which he said would focus on increasing energy cooperation. The pact won’t involve a joint oil production or export strategy, Reuters reported, citing a person it didn’t identify. Saudi Arabia is leading the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in a strategy of maintaining oil production levels at a time when the global crude market is in surplus, insisting suppliers outside the 12-nation group must help tackle the excess. Novak said as recently as June 3 that cutting crude production would hurt the oil market. The two […]

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Saudi April Crude Exports Drop as More Supply Used Locally

Saudi Arabia reduced crude oil exports in April as the world’s biggest producer used record supplies domestically for a burgeoning refining industry. Shipments fell to 7.74 million barrels a day from 7.9 million in March, the Riyadh-based Joint Organisations Data Initiative said on its website Thursday. The nation processed 2.22 million barrels a day in domestic refineries in April, the most since at least January 2002 when JODI started collecting statistics from governments. Saudi Arabia began operating a 400,000 barrel-a-day refinery at Yanbu on the Red Sea last year. Another plant with the same capacity is scheduled to begin operation in 2017 at Jazan in the country’s southwest. The kingdom’s oil-product exports rose 44 percent last year following the startup of a refinery in the Gulf port of Jubail, according to JODI data. “Saudi needs more crude to stay at home,” Kamel al-Harami, an independent oil analyst in Kuwait, […]

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Russia, Saudi Arabia to discuss broad oil cooperation agreement

ST PETERSBURG, Russia The oil ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia plan to discuss a broad cooperation agreement on Thursday at an economic forum in St Petersburg, two sources told Reuters. Saudi Arabia is the top producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the world’s top oil exporter, while Russia, which is not an OPEC member, is the second biggest oil supplier to the global markets. One source said the agreement to be discussed between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi would not be about joint oil production or export strategy. Russia has stepped up contacts with OPEC after oil prices plunged last year, but it has dismissed any suggestion it might cut output to prop up prices. OPEC has also refused to curb its output in order to defend market share. A spokeswoman for Russia’s Energy Ministry confirmed the meeting […]

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Saudi Arabia and China Drift Apart on Oil

One country looms over Saudi Arabia’s current pump-till-it-slumps oil strategy: China. Resurgent U.S. oil output has raised global supply. But China has long been the gorilla on the demand side, accounting for 48% of the increase in global oil consumption in the past decade. Now China is slowing—and even that earlier, rapid growth wasn’t an unalloyed boon for oil producers. The explanation lies in the changing relationship between China’s economic growth and the oil needed to support that. Plotting the annual growth in China’s inflation-adjusted gross domestic product against its growth in oil demand, the points for the 1980s and 1990s are as expected: As GDP rose, so did oil demand in a broadly linear way. Things changed in the 21st century: China added almost as much absolute GDP in the five years through 2005 as in the previous decade. Oil consumption increased every year on average by about […]

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Energy Nations Better Watch Out as Saudis Open Stock Market

Investors watch share price movements in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photographer: Waseem Obaidi/Bloomberg Global equity markets are waking up to a new $558 billion magnet pulling cash out of developing nations from Russia to Malaysia. As Saudi Arabia lifts a ban on direct investments by foreigners, fund allocators are preparing to shift money out of other countries and put it to work in the Arab world’s largest stock market. While there’s little consensus on which country will be the biggest loser, money managers mostly agree that energy producers will feel the heaviest effects. Below are the views of seven emerging-markets investors and strategists on what to expect: Martial Godet, head of emerging-market equities and derivatives strategy at BNP Paribas SA in Paris: Saudi Arabia “will not be a bargain, but it can be a nice diversification from emerging Asia that has become increasingly large within emerging markets. The biggest losers […]

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Saudi ministry says higher oil output driven by demand

LONDON Saudi Arabia’s oil ministry said on Tuesday the rise in its oil production over the past three months was a result of increased global demand and the needs of its customers and was not designed to compensate for lower oil prices. An official source at the ministry also said its petroleum policy did not reflect personal views and were formulated by an integrated team of experts and specialists in oil market economics, based at the ministry’s offices in Riyadh. "It is done in coordination with oil-producing countries, especially OPEC countries, so as to serve the Kingdom’s interests in the short and medium terms. It is also reviewed by the country’s senior leadership. The integrated team of experts and advisers supports the decision makers," the official said in a rare statement from the ministry. The source said the statement was issued after the Wall Street Journal published a story […]

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Iran and Saudi Arabia on a collision course over oil at Opec

Oil prices continue to trade at around 40pc below last year’s peak due to a global glut of supply. After a week of meetings of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) in Vienna, one thing is clear: Iran and Saudi Arabia are on a collision course that could eventually break the world’s largest oil producing group apart. Faced with Saudi Arabia’s stubborn determination to keep Opec pumping at full choke, Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh has upped the stakes in this game of double bluff between the Middle East’s two dominant political forces. He has confidently stated that the Islamic Republic will pump an additional 1m barrels per day (bpd) of crude within months of nuclear sanctions being lifted by the West. The move – assuming that Iran agrees to all US demands to curb its nuclear ambitions by the deadline on June 30 – effectively fires […]

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Saudi Arabia says it shot down Scud missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis

DUBAI Saudi Arabia shot down a Scud missile fired into the kingdom by Yemen’s dominant Houthi group and its army allies on Saturday, according to the Saudi state news agency, in the first use of the missile in over two months of war. The missile was launched early Saturday morning in the direction of Khamees al-Mushait, and was intercepted by a Patriot missile, a statement by the leadership of the Saudi-led joint Arab military coalition said. The area is home to largest air force base in southern Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, but there are no oil facilities in the area. An alliance of Gulf Arab nations has been bombing Yemen’s dominant Houthi militia and allied army units loyal to powerful ex-President Saleh since March 26 in an attempt to restore exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power. The coalition has said a main goal of their […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple