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Last year marked a turning point for the upstream industry. In 2018, the number of project FIDs rose globally to pre-crisis levels. The Middle East was the focal point for much of this activity and was the site of 11 out of the 49 projects sanctioned globally. The region led the pack in both sanctioned capex and reserves, accounting for almost 40% of global volumes and 55% of capex. And of the projects sanctioned globally in 2018, the Middle East is home to 3 of the 4 biggest in terms ...

U.S. crude oil output from seven major shale formations is expected to rise by about 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May to a record 8.46 million bpd, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its monthly drilling productivity report. The largest change is forecast in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, where output is expected to climb by 42,000 bpd to a fresh peak of about 4.14 million bpd in May. In North Dakota’s Bakken region, shale production is estimated to rise by about 11,000 bpd to ...

Credit Suisse has slashed its outlook for average spot LNG prices in Asia next year to USD 6/MMbtu (EUR 18/MWh) amid an overhang of supply it expects will peak in 2020. “Our global LNG supply-demand modelling shows 2020 as the year of most ‘oversupply’,” the Swiss investment bank’s head of oil and gas research in Australia, Saul Kavonic, told Montel in an emailed statement. The outlook represents a discount of nearly 20% relative to where the forward market is pricing the region’s benchmark Japan/Korea Marker at USD 7.40/MMbtu. “The long-known ...

Global stocks opened higher on Tuesday, reversing declines from the beginning of the week a day after Fed officials in separate speeches signaled confidence in the U.S. economy. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.2% in morning trading. In Asia, the Shanghai Stock Exchange was up 2.4%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index rallied 0.9% and Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.2% on hopes for a resurgence in Chinese growth. Futures pointed to small gains when U.S. indexes open with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 0.3% and S&P 500 futures ...

Expectations for volatility in the British pound plummeted to their lowest levels in more than a year on Tuesday after European Union leaders and the British government last week announced Brexit would be delayed for up to six months. Sterling implied volatility gauges slipped across the board, extending a recent decline, to their lowest levels since January 2018, as no significant Brexit-related developments were expected this week. Outside the drop in implied volatility measures in the currency derivatives markets, wider moves in the pound were limited with the British currency ...

China’s first-quarter economy growth likely cooled to the weakest pace in at least 27 years, a Reuters poll showed, but a flurry of measures to boost domestic demand may have put a floor under slowing activity in March. Signs of improvement in the world’s second-largest economy would add to growing optimism that Washington and Beijing are nearing a trade deal, reviving business confidence and easing worries of a significant slowdown in global growth. But analysts do not expect a sharp rebound in China’s economy like recoveries in the past, which ...

China’s influence on global commodity markets is unparalled. It’s a matter of scale. • China imports more than 60% of domestic demand for oil, gas and iron ore. • Its imports of oil, LNG and coal account for around a fifth of global seaborne trade. • The country is now the world’s largest consumer of bulk commodities. China drives liquidity and price formation like no other That’s why producers, traders and investors inevitably worry when risks and uncertainties emerge in China. Which is where we are today. Daily headlines feed ...

U.S.-China relations will continue to evolve as negotiations between the two countries stretch over decades, but a resolution to the current trade dispute will likely happen in the “not too distant future,” General Electric Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp said. His comments came as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the U.S. is open to facing “repercussions” if it doesn’t live up to its commitments in a potential trade deal with China, a sign that the two sides are edging closer to an accord to end their nine-month trade and ...

Daily rates on main tanker routes as compiled by shipbroker Charles R. Weber.

The German government sees no need for a stimulus package to reinvigorate Europe’s biggest economy, a spokesman said on Monday. “We have a very solid budget policy,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. “And we are coupling solid budgets with an increase in investments and this should in the coming years improve the basis for more growth.” “The budget stipulates investment spending that is significantly higher than in the previous legislative period and as such we see no need for a stimulus package,” he added. Seibert was responding to comments by ...

The BRIC acronym was coined by Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill in 2001. He predicted four emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — were on their way to reshape the world economy. Opponents said the countries were too different culturally and socially to be grouped together and that ultimately, it was a Goldman Sachs marketing ploy. Still, in the first decade, the countries met all expectations and beyond. Investment banks, think tanks and academia capitalized on the successes and everyone was talking about BRIC. In 2010, the ...

China on Monday condemning as “slanderous” criticism U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made of Beijing’s policies in South America, saying countries there would soon see who their “true friend” was. Pompeo on Friday, during a three-day trip to Chile, Paraguay and Peru, accused China of aiding Venezuela’s economic collapse by bankrolling President Nicolas Maduro as the country spirals into deepening political crisis. The United States is pressing Maduro to step down and urging more countries to join a coalition supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido. South America has seen a ...

After more than a year of tussling, Beijing and Washington “are rounding the turn” to achieve “the grandaddy of all” trade deals in the coming weeks, to borrow US President Donald Trump’s interesting turn of phrase. To be sure, fretting that the deal could stall or collapse at the last minute is still valid partly because of Trump’s wilful unpredictability, but the deal is more likely to happen than not. If anyone is looking for any fresh sign of confirmation, Trump gave one last week when he took another swing ...

A former US government official said the Trump administration should rely less on tariffs and work more with “like-minded countries” such as Japan and European Union states to push China towards economic reform. At a forum hosted by the Centre for China & Globalisation in Beijing on Sunday, Terry Miller – a former US ambassador at the United Nations and former representative to the UN Economic and Social Council during George W. Bush’s presidency – also called on China to clarify the goals of its “Belt and Road Initiative”. The ...

With the global economy slowing and showing signs it may need support, economists are pointing fingers at Germany and a few other countries that are in a position to provide a lot of stimulus but are choosing not to. What stimulus measures policy makers can use to support their flagging economies has been a key issue during weekend meetings at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. In its annual report on global fiscal policies, the IMF singled out Germany, Korea and Australia as places where fiscal stimulus could makes sense. ...