As the clamor grows for OPEC to slash even more oil production, and the group vows to consider any necessary action, its next meeting could result in an unusual step: a preemptive supply cut. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners — known as OPEC+ — have reduced output this year to contain a glut created by faltering oil demand and surging U.S. shale supply. Amid forecasts of a new surplus next year, there’s a chorus of calls from Morgan Stanley to Commerzbank AG for the alliance to ...

China Jan-Sept crude oil throughput rose 6.2% year-on-year at 480.38 million tonnes, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. * China Sept crude oil throughput up 9.4% y/y at 56.49 million tonnes – stats bureau * China Jan-Sept coke output up 6.3% y/y at 354.36 million tonnes – stats bureau * China Sept coke output up 3.2% y/y at 39.22 million tonnes – stats bureau * China Jan-Sept power generation up 3% y/y at 5.3 trillion kwh – stats bureau * China Sept power generation up 4.7% y/y at ...

What Happened On Oct. 17, 1973, the Arab-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced a cut to oil exports for Israel’s allies in the Yom Kippur War. Where The Market Was The S&P 500 traded around 109.80, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded around 5,295.63. What Else Was Going On In The World Vice President Spiro Agnew had just resigned from the Nixon administration, and the nation was awaiting results from the Watergate investigation. OPEC Weaponizes Oil Trade While Israel and its Western friends routed an attack by the ...

Brazil’s government has confirmed that oil mysteriously washing up on the country’s beaches is Venezuelan, but that does not necessarily mean Venezuela is responsible, the head of environmental agency Ibama said on Thursday. “This oil is Venezuelan. Its DNA is Venezuelan. This is certain. It’s a certainty, not speculation,” Ibama President Eduardo Bim told a Senate hearing on Thursday. “Does that mean that Venezuela is responsible? No, that is separate question.” His comments provided a rare glimpse of certainty in an otherwise baffling environmental mystery hanging over a booming offshore ...

French oil company Total has invested 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in three new offshore projects aimed at increasing Angola’s oil production, the company said here. The projects were intended to promote oil production levels of the country to over 100,000 barrels of oil per day, said Olivier Jouny, general manager of Total in Angola, at the end of a meeting with Angola’s National Assembly’s Commission on Economy and Finance. The company also plans to relaunch next year oil exploration in ultra-deep waters of Block 48 and in the development areas ...

Oil prices edged lower on Friday, as concerns about China’s economy outweighed bullish signals from its refining sector, but losses were limited on hopes for progress toward a U.S.-China trade agreement. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 fell 49 cents to settle at $59.42 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures lost 15 cents to settle at $53.78 a barrel. For the week Brent fell 1.8%, while WTI lost 1.7%. China’s economic growth slowed to 6% year-on-year in the third quarter, its weakest in 27-1/2 years and ...

Benchmark Dubai crude futures held firm in mid-morning trading in Asia on Friday, despite a widening Brent/Dubai spread, amid robust trading of December loading Middle East sour crude barrels. At 11 am in Singapore (0300 GMT), the December Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps spread was notionally pegged at $2.73/b, 15 cents/b wider than its assessed level of $2.58/b at 4:30 pm in Singapore (0830 GMT) on Thursday. Typically, Dubai intermonth spreads tend to soften on a widening Brent/Dubai EFS, to adjust for the relatively cheaper Dubai end of the ...

North Dakota oil and natural gas production reached new record highs in August, the North Dakota Pipeline Authority reported Thursday. Statewide oil output averaged nearly 1.48 million b/d in August, up 31,460 b/d from July. North Dakota gas output for August averaged about 3.01 Bcf/d, up from about 2.94 Bcf/d in July, which was a monthly record at the time. About 19% of the statewide gas production was flared, according to the new data. According to the state authority, about 74% of the statewide oil output, or about 1.09 million ...

The UK’s Buzzard crude oil field, a mainstay of the Forties crude blend, has been shut down again as a repair carried out earlier in the month was found to be unsound, China’s CNOOC International said Thursday. The field had been restarted over the weekend after it was shut down on October 4 for an unplanned repair to pipework on the facilities’ “topsides.” But in a statement Thursday, the field’s operator, CNOOC International, said it had been obliged to shut down the field again temporarily on the morning of October ...

Global commodity trading house Gunvor has been ordered to pay almost CHF94 million ($95 million) by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland for failing to take steps to prevent corruption in gaining access to the petroleum markets of the Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast. The Geneva-based trader failed to take all the “organizational measures that were reasonable and necessary to prevent its employees and agents from bribing public officials” to operate in the two West African countries, the OAG said in a statement. Last year, former Gunvor ...

Chevron is pushing back against the Trump administration’s plans to let the company’s Venezuela sanctions waiver expire, arguing such a move could ultimately drive oil production up, bolstering both the Maduro regime and Russia’s standing in the global market. “It’d be a very short-term gain for a huge, long-term cost,” a source familiar with Chevron’s operations told S&P Global Platts. “They’d be giving away the keys to our operations and allowing Rosneft to take over.” Chevron and four US oil services companies are operating in Venezuela outside of US sanctions ...

Saudi Aramco’s stop-start initial public offering was delayed again just days before a planned launch as doubts re-emerged about the $2 trillion valuation placed on the state oil giant by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The postponement, by at least a few weeks, will allow the array of Wall Street bankers advising Aramco to incorporate third-quarter results into their pre-IPO assessments of the company, according to people briefed on the situation. The banks are still struggling to meet the valuation the company is seeking, according to one of the people, ...

Brazilian oil company Petrobras said Friday its third-quarter crude oil and natural gas output was 16.5% higher year on year, amid record-setting production from subsalt fields. State-led Petrobras, which has been was completing the installation of seven new floating production units, produced 2.794 million b/d of oil equivalent in the third quarter from domestic fields. Oil and gas output was up 9.5% from the second quarter. The surge “reflected the entrance of new production wells in the Buzios and Lula fields, in line with our strategy to concentrate efforts on ...

Oil prices rose slightly on Friday as concern over an economic slowdown in China, the world’s biggest oil consumer, was countered by bullish signals from both the Chinese and U.S. refining sectors. Erasing earlier losses, global benchmark Brent crude oil futures rose 24 cents to $60.15 a barrel by 1149 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures edged up by 58 cents to $54.51. Both contracts were on track for weekly declines of less than 1%. In the third quarter, China’s economic growth slowed to 6% year on year, ...

Planned and unplanned turnarounds remained in focus in Africa, while in other news crude processed at Sogara, Gabon’s sole refinery, fell sharply. Sogara processed 243,340 mt (9760 b/d) of crude in the first half of 2019, or nearly 48% down on the year, according to local media reports. As a result the country has had to import more than 201,507 mt of refined products, 37% higher year on year. The refinery has reduced its throughput from 812,611 mt in 2017 to 779,951 mt in 2018. It can process more than ...