Oil rose on Tuesday towards $41 a barrel as oil companies shut down some U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output due to a hurricane, although surging coronavirus infections and rising Libyan supply limited gains. Companies including BP BP.L, Chevron CVX.N and Equinor ASA EQNR.OL evacuated rigs, and so far producers have shut 16%, or 293,656 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output due to Hurricane Zeta. Brent crude LCOc1 was up 13 cents, or 0.3%, at $40.59 a barrel by 0915 GMT. U.S. oil CLc1 gained 27 cents, or 0.7%, ...

OPEC is “cautiously optimistic” about oil demand recovery and does not expect the contraction in the second quarter to be repeated, Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said Oct. 26, speaking at the India Energy Forum by CERAWeek. “The developments for vaccines are continuing around the world, with candidates that have very good prospects of coming to the market as soon as possible,” Barkindo told the India Energy Forum. “Therefore we do not expect a relapse to the massive contraction that we saw in the second quarter. We remain cautiously optimistic that ...

Hedge funds purchased crude futures and options at the fastest rate for six months as portfolio managers became increasingly confident OPEC+ will postpone scheduled output increases until demand is stronger. The equivalent of 55 million barrels was purchased by hedge funds and other money managers in the six most important petroleum futures and options contracts in the week to Oct. 22. Buying was concentrated in NYMEX and ICE WTI (+36 million barrels) and Brent (+20 million), with only minor adjustments in U.S. diesel (+2 million) and European gasoil (-4 million) ...

The crude oil market started the week of Oct. 26 lower as COVID-19 cases continued trending up in Europe and the US, while concerns of rising Libya output also capped sentiment recovery. At 0200 GMT, December ICE Brent crude futures were pegged at $41.10/b, down $1.33/b from the previous Asia close on Oct. 23, S&P Global Platts data showed. MIDDLE EAST CRUDE **Asian refiners have mostly purchased their requirements for December-loading sour crude barrels over the last two weeks. **Sentiment has improved amid a sudden uptick in buying interest from ...

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday that the worst was over for the oil market. “I guess the worst part is over,” Prince Abdulaziz said at the virtual India Energy Forum by CERAWeek when asked to comment on the status of the oil market recovery. “We are still vigilant. I think there is a big shift all together in terms of where we are today and where we were in April and May,” he said. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including ...

Indian oil demand is recovering faster than expected, with gasoline consumption already at pre-pandemic levels, and the upcoming festival reason is expected to give a further boost to overall oil-product consumption, Indian Oil Corp. Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya told S&P Global Platts in an interview. While the country’s appetite for jet fuel would continue to suffer in the near term, Vaidya added that higher auto sales were supporting oil consumption. “Gasoline has already crossed the pre-COVID-19 levels, and diesel too is edging towards pre-COVID-19 levels. The festive season would give ...

Higher taxes imposed on Russia’s energy sector could make prolonged output curbs by OPEC and allied producers easier to stomach for Moscow’s energy majors. The new system of taxes, approved by President Vladimir Putin earlier this month to help Russia weather the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, make it more expensive for energy companies to boost production from mature oil fields and produce more heavy crude. That could make Russia’s energy sector more willing to accept tighter policies from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its ...

Cenovus Energy’s CVE.TO acquisition of Husky Energy HSE.TO creates a new Canadian-owned major oil producer and lends the long-struggling oil patch greater stability during its biggest crisis in decades, with investors betting on further deals. The C$3.8 billion ($2.9 billion) combination announced Sunday, the largest Canadian oil and gas deal in nearly four years based on enterprise value, may pressure peers to get bigger or sell. “You will continue to see stock-based deals with skinny premiums as companies scrape together enough accretion and cash flow to survive,” said Ryan Bushell, ...

French oil group Total has no plans to shrink its oil production volumes in the coming years but hopes to maintain its current output levels while prioritizing lower-cost, shorter-cycle upstream projects, its chief executive officer Patrick Pouyanne said Oct. 26. “We don’t want to decline oil on the production side, we’ll continue,” Pouyanne told an industry event on Oct 26. “It’s a bit difficult to grow when you are selective but maintaining our oil production is part of a strategy…When we have opportunities to grow we’ll do it…we are proud ...

BP has handed over operatorship of an environmentally-sensitive exploration block offshore Brazil in the Amazon Delta to state-run oil company Petrobras, BP confirmed Oct 26. Petrobras will take over the operation of the FZA-M-59 block in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, after approval by Brazil’s National Agency for Oil, Gas and Biofuels (ANP) last week. The move comes after French major Total last month dropped operating stakes in five exploration blocks offshore Brazil in the Amazon Delta, where the oil company has had trouble obtaining environmental permits to drill in ...

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the UAE’s biggest energy producer, announced Oct. 26 the award of three contracts worth $324 million for work on some of its onshore oil fields and terminals at Fujairah and Jebel Dhanna. ADNOC Onshore, a unit of the parent company, awarded the contract to UAE’s Galfar Engineering and Contracting and Robt Stone Middle East, ADNOC said in a statement. The three contracts include the procurement and construction of flowlines and wellhead installations across several onshore Abu Dhabi oil fields and the engineering, procurement, and construction ...

Four major buyers of Russian oil are contesting the amount of compensation pipeline monopoly Transneft has offered over the supply of tainted barrels more than a year ago, three sources told Reuters, raising the prospect of legal action. Up to 5 million tonnes of Russian oil were contaminated with organic chlorides on their way to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline and a Baltic port in April 2019, forcing Moscow to suspend exports to countries as far away as Germany. Oil companies and traders from countries including France, Hungary and Kazakhstan, ...

OPEC’s secretary general said on Monday an oil market recovery may take longer than hoped as coronavirus inflections rise around the world, and OPEC and its allies would “stay the course” in balancing the market. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia made a record oil output cut in April as the pandemic hit demand. They are scheduled to increase output in January as part of a gradual easing of supply curbs. OPEC’s Mohammad Barkindo, asked at the virtual India Energy Forum by CERAWeek if the ...

The head of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil LKOH.MM said on Sunday that he expects oil prices to rise to $50 a barrel in the first quarter of next year but said a tough tax policy would stunt the company’s recovery from the pandemic. Industry players have been fighting a Russian government drive to raise taxes on oil and mining companies, as Moscow seeks to plug fiscal gaps left by lower oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, the government signed into law a bill that would replace ...

Energy Oil remains under pressure, with ICE Brent falling towards US$41/bbl. The recent surge in Covid-19 cases and further movement restrictions across parts of Europe is weighing on sentiment, with concern over what this all means for demand. Not helping, is the fact that Libya appears to be returning supply to the market quicker than expected. Libya’s National Oil Corporation has lifted force majeure at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports, while the NOC has said that it expects the country’s output to reach 800Mbbls/d within 2 weeks, and 1MMbbls/d ...