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Responsible for 46% of global production and 51% of global demand, China’s coal reliance is not falling nearly as fast as some like to claim For demand, too many confuse the crucial difference between “growing less slowly” or remaining “buoyantly very high” versus “shrinking” or “declining.” Similar to U.S. oil demand, China’s coal consumption aligns with the first two. While it could indeed be said that Chinese coal demand has been relatively flat for a few years now, importantly, it hasn’t been falling in the absolute sense. For production, China’s ...

The European Commission wants to encourage using euros instead of US dollars for physical crude oil and natural gas trading, and is hosting a public workshop on February 14 in Brussels to discuss this. This follows EC concerns about how the US dollar’s dominance in energy contracts leaves European companies vulnerable to US foreign policy-related financial sanctions. These include current US sanctions limiting trade with Iran, and potential US sanctions on companies investing in Russia’s 55 Bcm/year Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project to Germany, for example. The EU ...

Oil prices rose on Tuesday after Washington imposed sanctions on Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA in a move that may curb the OPEC member’s crude exports, but price rises were capped by ample global supply and signs of a slowing Chinese economy. International Brent crude oil futures were up 51 cents at $60.44 per barrel by 1149 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 43 cents at $52.42 per barrel. Venezuela has the world’s biggest proven oil reserves, but its potential has not been realized due to ...

The global energy horizon continues to evolve, assuming in the process, new shapes and forms! Only last year, on February 9, to be exact, the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) — the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy (DoE) — had forecasted in its Annual Energy Outlook 2018 that the US would become a net energy exporter by 2022. A year later, while unveiling its Energy Outlook 2019 (AEO 2019) last Thursday, at the Bipartisan Policy Centre in Washington, EIA Administrator Dr Linda Capuano forecasted the country would ...

Hedge fund managers stepped up their purchases of oil and refined products last week on growing hopes of a U.S.-China trade truce and that the global economy will avoid a severe slowdown in 2019. But fund buying has been concentrated in crude rather than fuels, which is consistent with producer club OPEC tightening the supply side of the market while the demand outlook remains more uncertain. Hedge funds and other money managers boosted their net long position in Brent crude futures and options by 30 million barrels to 203 million ...

With Friday’s headline, “Trump Eyes Action to Limit States’ Powers to Block Pipelines,” an oil and gas blog is due. Despite a 140% boom in U.S. crude oil production and a 50% jump in natural gas output since shale took flight in 2008, the midstream infrastructure to pipe this new supply around the country has simply not kept up. This is a major problem for us because pipelines are easily the safest and most economical way to transport energy. In addition, hardly “going away,” oil and gas will still supply ...

Oil price volatility continues to pose a “threat” to upstream oil and gas investment, including for the East Mediterranean’s current and would-be gas producers, Egypt’s petroleum minister, Tarek El-Molla, said Monday. Speaking in Florence, Italy, Molla praised the efforts of OPEC and its allies to stabilize oil prices, but said sufficient stability had not yet been achieved. While much investment and exploration activity is directed at gas projects, volatility of oil prices “is directly impacting the amount of investments. It really shapes the future of investment in the oil and ...

Global stocks moved between small gains and losses Tuesday amid fresh concerns that trade tensions and slowing growth in China would hurt corporate results. Futures pointed to a flat open for the S&P 500 after the index closed lower Monday. Stocks in China pared their steepest losses but still ended the day lower, while the Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.7% midday following its biggest daily decline in about a month. After a rough December, stocks around the world have rallied for most of January thanks to relatively steady corporate ...

The euro settled at a two-week high on Tuesday, moving in tiny ranges, as large derivatives market positions discouraged traders from taking large bets in an event-filled week. Trade tensions between the United States and China escalated overnight after U.S. officials announced criminal charges against China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, escalating a fight with the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker, which denies wrongdoing. The announcement came before trade talks with Beijing later this week and snuffed out a fledgling relief rally in global risk assets led by Chinese stocks and ...

Sterling has bounced 6 percent from Jan 4. lows and could gain 3-7 percent more if UK lawmakers manage to break their Brexit deadlock this week, but signs are it will struggle to sustain a rally while Britain’s path out of the EU remains uncertain. From option markets to positioning indicators, market pricing indicates that either a postponement of the Brexit deal or acceptance of Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal would be a short-term positive for the pound. But the uncertainty a delayed Brexit could cause would cap further potential ...

Amid an ongoing trade war between the world’s two largest economies, reports emerged that China has offered to buy more U.S. products in the coming years to reduce the two countries’ bilateral goods trade imbalance. Such a gesture may address one of President Donald Trump’s stated goals for U.S.-China trade negotiations, but experts say it’s addressing a metric that doesn’t matter very much. That is, a bilateral trade balance — which measures the transactions between two countries — is an indicator that doesn’t adequately reveal who’s gaining or losing in ...

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration will limit growth of U.S. real gross domestic product by an average of 0.1 percent each year for the next 10 years if they remain in place at current levels, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said. The nonpartisan agency said growth of GDP – a measure national economic output – would be curbed by a drop in consumer spending power and a fall in U.S. exports. Those declines would be only partly offset by an expected increase in output as domestic goods replace imports, ...

Today, Tuesday, January 29 2019, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 55 points, reaching 797 points.

Fifty-seven vessels carrying 8.43 million mt of iron ore are expected to arrive at major Chinese ports in the week ended Thursday January 31, down 1.56 million

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