The U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it has finalized contracts to purchase 2.73 million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The U.S. has contracts to purchase 930 million barrels (MB) from Exxon MobilXOM.N, 600 million MB from Phillips 66PSX.N, 600 MB from SunocoSUN.N and 600 MB from MacquarieMQG.AX. The contracts total $215,929,510, according a statement from the department. The purchases are part of a plan to slowly replenish the SPR after a record drawdown last year to ease prices in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of ...

Oil prices were stable on Friday following a 2% drop on Thursday, with the market unconvinced that the latest round of OPEC+ production cuts will be able to lift prices out of their recent slump. Brent crude futures for February rose by 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $81.02 a barrel by 1520 GMT on their first day as the front-month contract. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures (WTI) rose 25 cents, or 0.33%, to $76.21. OPEC+ producers agreed on Thursday to remove around 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of ...

Brazil is expected to join the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries in January but would not take part in the group’s coordinated output caps, the chief executive of state-run oil firm Petrobras PETR4.SA told Reuters. The group’s surprising announcement on Thursday that the South American nation would join it raised immediate questions on whether Brazil would take part in the production caps, as OPEC+ nations agreed to voluntary cuts approaching 2 million barrels per day (bpd) for early next year. “There is no quota,” Jean Paul Prates said in an ...

South Africa handed Transnet a 47 billion rand ($2.5 billion) lifeline on Friday, which it said would help the state-owned rail and ports firm meet its immediate debt obligations. Transnet has struggled to provide adequate freight rail and port services in South Africa due to equipment shortages and maintenance backlogs after years of under-investment. The logistics utility’s underperformance has impacted commodity exports and other sectors such as manufacturing and retail, weakening Africa’s most advanced economy. “The financial support package provided for the entity is a 47 billion rand guarantee facility ...

U.S. natural gas futures slid about 1% on Friday as record output and forecasts for less cold weather and lower heating demand than usual through at least mid-December should allow utilities to keep pulling less gas from storage than normal in coming weeks. Analysts forecast there was about 7.2% more gas in U.S. storage on Dec. 1 than normal for this time of year. Front-month gas futures NGc1 for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 3.8 cents, or 1.4%, to $2.764 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) ...

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers was making a contribution to the stabilisation of energy markets and supporting energy prices at a balanced level. Peskov said that Russia was interested in continuing work with OPEC+. The group on Thursday agreed to voluntary oil supply cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for early next year led by Saudi Arabia rolling over its current voluntary cut. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Andrew Osborn)

OPEC+ oil producers on Thursday agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for early next year led by Saudi Arabia rolling over its current voluntary cut. Benchmark global oil prices settled down around 2%, in part because the reductions were voluntary and because of investor expectation ahead of the meeting that additional supply cuts might be deeper. Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+, who pump more than 40% of the world’s oil, met online on Thursday to discuss supply policy. “The market ...

Brazil will join the OPEC+ alliance from January 2024, in a move that adds South America’s largest oil producer to the group’s market influence, OPEC confirmed in a statement Nov. 30. “This is a historic moment for Brazil and the energy industry and we look forward to joining this distinguished group,” Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy Alexandre Silveira de Oliveira said in an speech to OPEC+ ministers during a virtual meeting on Nov. 30. “The OPEC+ agreement has effectively protected the stability of oil markets.” Silveira didn’t provide details ...

At the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference starting on 1 December in Dubai, the European Union will call on all Parties to take urgent action to bring down greenhouse gas emissions this decade and respect the commitments they made under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to below 2°C, and to aim for 1.5°C. President von der Leyen will attend the World Climate Action Summit that officially opens COP28 on 1-2 December. On 1 December in the EU Pavilion, she will host a high-level event on promoting Paris-aligned carbon ...

Over 60% of global electricity generated so far in 2023 was produced by fossil fuels, despite the ongoing aggressive roll-out of renewable energy sources in every major economy. Several key countries have sourced well over half of their electricity from fossil fuels this year, including the United States (59%), China (65%), India (75%), Japan (63%), Poland (73%) and Turkey (57%), according to data from think tank Ember. Such a wide span of key global manufacturing and exporting economies underscores the challenges facing delegates as they convene this week for the ...

Ukraine’s state gas transit operator on Wednesday proposed reversing gas flows through the Trans-Balkan pipeline, which would allow gas to be pumped from the Balkans to Central and Eastern European countries through Ukraine. The pipeline passes through the territory of Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey and supplied Russian gas to the Balkans before the TurkStream pipeline was launched. Ukraine’s gas transit operator (GTSOU) said in a statement on Wednesday that it was proposing the creation of guaranteed “reverse mode” capacity along the entire route. The pipeline has already been ...

OPEC member Kuwait is planning to invest up to $50 billion in the next five years to expand its oil and gas output capacity, a senior oil executive has said. The investments at an annual average of $9-10 billion will boost the Gulf country’s crude production from around 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to 3.2 million bpd, said Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, CEO of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. In the long term, Kuwait has plans to lift oil output to 4 million bpd by 2035 and gas production to ...

U.S. crude oil production averaged 13.2 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending Nov. 24, unchanged from the previous week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday. The figure rose by 1.1 million b/d from this time last year, according to the EIA. More than 80 percent of the U.S. crude oil production growth comes from the country’s Lower 48 states, which does not include production from Alaska and the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico, according to the EIA. The United States has become a major oil ...

Indonesia’s oil and gas lifting is expected to come in below target this year due to disruptions like a pipe leakage and a fire at a power cable, the country’s upstream oil and gas regulator SKK Migas said on Thursday. Extrapolating on output data between January to October, SKK Migas chief Dwi Soetjipto estimated this year’s oil lifting will stand at 606,300 barrels per day (bpd), below a target of 660,000 bpd. Gas lifting for the year was estimated at 5,400 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd), also below ...

Oil prices pared gains on Thursday after rising by more than 1% earlier in the session after OPEC+ producers agreed to output cuts approaching 2 million barrels per day (bpd) for early next year. Brent crude futures for January gained 16 cents, or 0.2%, to $84.09 a barrel by 11:01 a.m. EDT (1601 GMT). The front-month Brent contract expires later on Thursday. The more liquid February contract was down $1.03, or 1.2%, at $81.85. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell by $1.09, or 1.4%, to $78.78. Saudi Arabia, Russia ...