Urals crude differentials strengthened in the Baltic after loading programmes showed fairly stable supply volumes of Russian crude in early August, traders said. * Urals differentials were seen at dated Brent minus $2.25 a barrel in deals outside the Platts window. Some cargoes were resold by Gunvor, which earlier in the week paid as much as dated Brent minus $2 a barrel at a tender of Surgut. * The loading programmes for the first 9 days of August showed Russia would load 15 cargoes from the Baltic ports of Primorsk ...

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has lifted four parcels of crude oil on behalf of the State in the first five months of 2018, compared with three liftings in 2017. This involved 3.96 million barrels of crude oil, compared with 2.89 million barrels in the same period in 2017. Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance, said this when he presented the 2018 Mid-year Budget Review to Parliament in Accra on Thursday. He said a total of 8,881.38 million standard cubic feet of gas was delivered to Ghana National Gas ...

Digitalization is the buzzword on everyone’s lips in the oil and gas sector. It is seen as the remedy for all the industry’s problems from operational efficiency, safety and lack of visibility. But it is also being heralded as a solution to the industry’s constant struggle to recruit the young, tech-savvy workers that it needs. It promises to radically transform how the oil and gas workforce operates. But most companies are still confused about how to separate the reality from the hype. Is flexible working the next great recruiting tool? ...

-Orders of $6.0 billion for the quarter, up 15% sequentially and up 9% year-over-year on a combined business basis* -Revenue of $5.5 billion for the quarter, up 3% sequentially and up 2% year-over-year on a combined business basis -GAAP operating income of $78 million for the quarter, increased $119 million sequentially and increased $223 million year-over-year on a combined business basis -Adjusted operating income (a non-GAAP measure) of $289 million for the quarter, up 27% sequentially and up favorably year-over-year on a combined business basis -GAAP diluted loss per share ...

Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP’s influence in the Asian sweet crude market could rapidly diminish in the coming quarters as the company may stop offering US condensate in the region amid ongoing plans to sell off its stake in Eagle Ford shale, while production of its heavy sweet Pyrenees crude was put on halt. BHP has been regularly marketing Eagle Ford condensate in the Asian spot market over the past couple of years. The company’s ultra-light US crude supply was often widely referred to by regional refiners as Black Hawk condensate. ...

Oil prices rose on Friday as a weakening dollar and lower expected August crude exports from Saudi Arabia supported the market, offsetting concerns about U.S.-China trade tensions and supply increases. U.S. crude strengthened late in the session as the U.S. dollar index slipped to a four-day low, on reports that U.S. President Donald Trump worries that the Federal Reserve will raise rates twice this year. “The dollar was a one-way ticket for the last couple of weeks and basically reversed directions, giving us some strong support,” said Phil Flynn, analyst ...

Higher oil prices this year have reduced the need for energy-exporters in the Middle East to raise funds through the Islamic bond market — threatening the growth of a niche finance sector that has been struggling to gain wider traction. Oil prices have stayed above $60 per barrel so far this year. That’s expected to persist: S&P Global Ratings has revised upward its forecast for oil to an average $65 per barrel this year from the $55 per barrel it projected earlier. As the key commodity inched higher in its ...

Oil prices came under pressure on Friday from U.S.-China trade tensions and were on course for a third straight week of falls. Brent oil fell 14 cents to $72.44 a barrel by 1050 GMT. The expiring U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for August delivery was up 8 cents at $69.54 a barrel, while the September contract fell 18 cents to $68.08. U.S. President Donald Trump said in a CNBC interview he was ready to put tariffs on $500 billion (383.67 billion pounds) of imported goods from China. Lower oil ...

What do you do when your dumping ground cleans up its act? That’s the problem confronting the oil market as the global shipping industry starts implementing regulations to limit its consumption of sulfur, a common impurity in crude that can cause respiratory problems and acid rain when it’s burned. As we saw in a column Wednesday, rules on sulfur content coming into force at the start of 2020 will make the bunker fuel used in ships — traditionally the cheapest, dirtiest fraction from refining — cleaner than the median barrel ...

The world’s biggest oilfield-service companies may have finally found something to talk about beyond the U.S. shale boom. The oil explorers they serve are forecast to boost spending for a second straight year. While North America will gain the most, jumping an estimated 14 percent in 2018, international spending is rising much faster than expected at the start of the year, said James West, an Evercore ISI analyst. It’s a boomlet, not a boom. But for servicers still struggling to recover from a brutal oil price rout, any gain can ...

Releasing crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in response to a rise in prices resulting from the reimposition of sanctions on Iran would be a mistake and ultimately self-defeating. The SPR has sufficient crude to offset any loss of exports from Iran for many months, especially if stock releases are combined with increased oil production by Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC. The statutes governing the operation of the SPR grant the U.S. president broad discretion to order a drawdown, and any order is unlikely to ...

U.S. refiners ran full-tilt in the second quarter, fueled by cheap domestic crude and fat margins that should boost earnings, though their heavy activity could eventually saturate the market with gasoline, sapping profits down the road. U.S. independent refiners, including Phillips 66 and Marathon Petroleum Corp, are expected to announce strong results due to the heavy discounts for U.S. and Canadian crude, along with strong fuel demand and lower costs to comply with the nation’s biofuel laws, analysts said. Strong crack spreads – the margin on turning crude oil into ...

Gulf sovereigns are enjoying a fiscal windfall from the recovery in oil prices, but this will test the durability of improvements to the structure and management of public finances made in the region since the 2014 oil shock, Fitch Ratings says. Pro-cyclical spending increases in some countries could leave public finances exposed when oil prices fall back, which is our baseline assumption. All oil exporters in the MENA region will see significant improvements in their fiscal and external balances in 2018, driven by a higher average oil price and, in ...

Crude prices rose on Friday, but were still set for a weekly drop on concerns about oversupply and the ongoing trade conflict between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest oil users. Brent oil had climbed 27 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $72.85 a barrel by 0655 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 29 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $69.79 a barrel. However, both benchmarks are on track for their third weekly loss, after big declines on Monday, with Brent set to decline 3.3 percent ...

Growing Permian basin crude production and a lack of pipeline capacity has pushed the WTI Midland-to-Houston discount past $15/bl, with signs that it will not return to single digits until late next year. The start-up of new oil pipeline capacity from west Texas to the Gulf coast helped postpone deep WTI Midland-to-Houston discounts to mid-year, but on 17 July the discount for August delivery was $14.64/bl, with the August to-date trade average discount around $14.79/bl. For July trade, the spread averaged about $15.80/bl from about $13/bl for June delivery. That’s ...