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Oil prices rose by 2 percent on Monday, extending a rally from 18-month lows hit in December with support from OPEC production cuts and steadying equity markets. Oil has gained nearly 12 percent since last Monday in its biggest week-on-week rally in two years. Brent crude futures rose $1.39 on the day to $58.45 a barrel by 1224 GMT, up from December’s slide below $50, which was its lowest level since July 2017. U.S. crude rose $1.26 to $49.22 a barrel. “Momentum is coming back into the market from very ...

This winter, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market experienced a different focus as US gas exports were challenged by weaker Asia demand. That kept the global LNG market under pressure and led to weaker prices than previous winters. At the same time, LNG shipping data shows that lately Australia has beaten Qatar as the world largest LNG supplier. Australia now produces 83 million tons per year of nameplate liquefaction capacity, versus Qatar’s 77 million tons per year. Moreover, Australia still has more room for near-term production upside. Ship-tracking data from ...

Given oil’s plummet at the end of last year, OPEC’s strategy to stabilize the market might look a bust. But where it matters most for the cartel’s members — petroleum revenues — it’s still a winner. Crude prices in London have sunk back to the same range when the group began production cuts in early 2017, of between $50 and $60 a barrel, as record U.S. oil output and shaky fuel demand counteract the group’s efforts. That’s below the levels most of its members need to balance government budgets. But ...

If recent market evidence is anything to go by, oil and natural gas prices will remain volatile in 2019. However, there is much to suggest that the industry has the potential to overcome short-term challenges despite oversupply risks. For instance, according to Moody’s, both U.S. oil and natural gas benchmarks will see range-bound volatility but the rating agency expects the medium-term price band for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the main North American benchmark, to be $50-$70 per barrel, and North American natural gas at Henry Hub to average $2.50-$3.50/MMBtu. ...

With the start of the new year, bullish sentiments have returned to oil markets as Opec and its allies implemented 1.2 million bpd production cuts and expected US-China trade talks tomorrow eased global economic slowdown fears. The price of oil, which collapsed more than 40 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018, surged to its best weekly gain in more than two years. Brent rallied about 2 per cent and closed at $57.06 on Friday, ending the week up 9.3 per cent for its best showing since December 2016. ...

America is now the largest producer of oil in the world. For the U.S., this is great news as the dream of energy independence grows and maybe one day we can tell OPEC to go take a hike. However, while the shale oil revolution has helped change the energy landscape forever, we cannot take shale for granted. We can’t just assume that the industry can withstand any price and that production can keep rising despite the market conditions. We can’t assume that shale oil producers can match OPEC production cuts ...

Refinery works in Africa were still ongoing, while news has emerged on planned upgrades and new launches, according to S&P Global Platts data. NEW AND REVISED ENTRIES — Angola’s Luanda refinery remains completely shut down for maintenance works that started in October, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. The works were originally expected to take around 45-60 days to complete, market sources said at the time. However, the refinery still has not come back online again. Initially, the refinery had been expected to undergo works in the ...

Libya aims to increase its oil production to 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) from 953,000 bpd currently, the chairman of the state oil company NOC said on Sunday in Benghazi. Reaching that target hinges on improving security conditions in the country, Mustafa Sanalla said at a news conference. He reiterated his calls for ensuring the security of workers to allow for the resumption of production at the 315,000 bpd Sharara oil field which was taken over on Dec. 8 by tribesmen, armed protesters and state guards demanding salary payments ...

Strong employment data in the United States, decisive action from the Chinese central bank and dovish messages from U.S. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell steadied markets on Monday, pushing an index of world stocks to a 2-1/2 week high. The resumption of talks between the United States and China on tariffs also helped restore some optimism to a market battered in recent weeks by trade tensions and a weakening global growth outlook. Though European shares were in the red on Monday, they were still close to three-week highs after Friday’s ...

Investors should not be intimidated by the volatile start to the trading year and opportunities in Asia await those who are “brave,” a strategist said. Global markets have taken a beating so far this year, even though 2019 has just begun. Uncertainties from last year, such as the U.S.-China trade war, are meeting new challenges such as iPhone maker Apple’s sales warning. “For the brave, now would be a good time to be looking at some of these markets,” Stefan Hofer, chief investment strategist at LGT Bank in Hong Kong, ...

The US and China are not just engaging in a trade war and military posturing, but also in a technological race and ideological challenge, or more specifically, it is about the future of democracy. This is the final article in a three-part series examining the prospects of major economic and political reform around the world in 2019, and the complexities and impacts of this process. To remain economically viable in the near term, China needs to start focusing on exporting to countries that can afford to pay and help sustain ...

The effectiveness of a move by China’s central bank to inject up to an expected 700 billion yuan into the world’s second largest but worryingly slowing economy is difficult to calculate given the lack of transparency in the monetary policy, warned a chief economist. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has changed the definition of a small business, meaning an enterprise with a credit line of less than 10 million yuan (US$1.46 million) will qualify for targeted reserve-requirement ratio cuts, up from the previous standard of 5 million yuan. This ...

Arresting a deepening economic slowdown, not making “baseless” deep-rooted structural reforms, should be the top priority for China’s economy in 2019, a senior economist said. Yu Yongding believes Beijing needs to take every possible measure, including increasing money supply and boosting fiscal spending, to prevent the world’s second largest economy from tanking. “China’s experiences in the last 40 years have told us that, all the problems will worsen if we can’t maintain economic growth rate at a certain level,” Yu, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social ...

Where is the economy heading in 2019? Changes in economic growth are much less volatile than the performance of stock markets. In order to forecast what will happen in an economy it is better to focus on the fundamentals, which is to say, examining causes rather than effects. In my forecast for 2018, I included as a factor of my optimism the increase in value of U.S. stocks during the first years of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. This year I include in my analysis the bumpy downward ride ...

China has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its economic liberalisation. While everyone praised Deng Xiaoping again for his vision and leadership, one of his famous sayings, “Let some people get rich first”, was conveniently not mentioned. Amid widening inequality in China, that slogan just doesn’t feel appropriate now. If China were to hold a referendum today on increasing or decreasing state controls, chances are that the public would vote overwhelmingly for increasing them. Capitalists and liberals in the country must be relieved that holding a referendum is not a ...