Meredith Mazzilli News

U.S. energy companies added oil rigs for an eighth week in a row, extending a seven-month drilling recovery as crude prices remained near a 17-month high. Drillers added 13 oil rigs in the week to Dec. 23, bringing the total count up to 523, the most since December 2015, but still below the 538 rigs seen a year ago, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday. Since crude prices recovered from 13-year lows in February to around $50 a barrel in May, drillers have added a total of 207 oil rigs in 27 of the past 30 weeks, the biggest recovery in rigs since a global oil glut crushed the market over two years. The Baker Hughes oil rig count plunged from a record 1,609 in October 2014 to a six-year low of 316 in May as U.S.

U.S. energy companies this week added oil rigs for a seventh week in a row, extending a seven-month drilling recovery as crude prices held near a 17-month high. Drillers added 12 oil rigs in the week to Dec. 16, bringing the total count to 510, the highest since January, but still below 541 rigs a year ago, energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday. Since crude prices briefly recovered from 13-year lows to around $50 a barrel in May, drillers have added oil rigs in 26 of the past 29 weeks for a total of 194, the biggest recovery in rigs since a global oil glut crushed the market over two years. Almost two-thirds of the rigs added since May…

Caterpillar Inc insider Jim Umpleby will become chief executive of the heavy equipment maker on Jan. 1, faced with the challenge of reversing a multiyear sales decline triggered by the global commodities slump. He replaces Doug Oberhelman, who will retire as CEO on Dec. 31 but stay on as executive board chairman until March 31, the company said on Monday. Caterpillar shares were down about 0.58 percent to $87.20. Under Oberhelman the company recorded record high revenue in 2012, two years after he became CEO. However, a decline in metals and oil prices hit the company hard and its sales have fallen since 2013. A 35-year company veteran, Umpleby must grapple with Caterpillar's sober outlook.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States rose again this week, extending its second-best streak of no cuts into a 17th straight week, with analysts expecting more additions as crude prices hold over $50 a barrel. Drillers added 11 oil rigs in the week to Oct. 21, bringing the total count up to 443, the most since February, but still below the 594 rigs seen a year ago, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes Inc on Friday. That 17-week streak of not cutting rigs matched a stretch in 2010, making it the second-longest run since 1987, following 19 weeks in 2011. The Baker Hughes oil rig count plunged from a record of 1…

A fire broke out on an oil tanker of Mexican state oil company Pemex in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, forcing all the crew to be evacuated in the latest accident to plague the struggling firm. The blaze on the tanker "Burgos" occurred off the coast of Boca del Rio in Veracruz state and all the crew were safe, Pemex said in a tweet. Mexico's Navy said there were 31 crew members and that all had returned to port. Images tweeted by Pemex showed the vessel giving off plumes of smoke as another boat hosed the tanker. Early on Saturday evening, Pemex said that firefighting teams were still working to put out the blaze. The tanker was carrying 80,000 barrels of diesel and 70,000 barrels of gasoline, Mexicos Communications and Transport Ministry said.

U.S. crude oil exports plunged by more than 40 percent in June, foreign trade data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed on Friday, after Brent's premium to U.S. crude hovered in a tight band earlier this year. Total exports dropped to 383,000 barrels per day from May's record of 662,000 bpd, according to data compiled by Reuters. Exports to Canada were 280,000 bpd versus 308,000 bpd a month prior. Exports to United Kingdom were 37,000 bpd, nearly unchanged from May. Meanwhile, exports to Curacao were 17,000 bpd, a sharp drop from May's 67,000 bpd. The export declines were likely a result of Brent's May and June contracts having traded in such a tight band to U.S. crude earlier this year. At one point, Brent even briefly traded at a discount. Typically, a wide premium for Brent over U.S.

U.S. energy firms this week added rigs drilling for oil for the second time this year, energy services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday, after crude prices briefly tested a seven-month high over $50 a barrel over the past two weeks. That was a key price level that analysts and producers had said would likely trigger a return to the well pad. Drillers added 9 oil rigs in the week to June 3, bringing the total rig count up to 325, compared with 642 a year ago, Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report. The new rigs were scattered across many basins and states with the Permian in West Texas and New Mexico gaining five, while Alaska and Texas gained three each. Prior to this week, energy companies added only one rig so far this year, during the week of March 18.

Cuba's chronic goods trade deficit widened by $1.5 billion in 2015 as exports fell 24 percent and imports rose 3 percent, the government said on Wednesday, in the first data showing a commodity crash has hurt the economy. The information, released on the National Statistics Office web page did not cover Cuba's large service exports. Prices for key Cuban exports such as sugar, nickel and refined oil products all tumbled last year. The Communist-run country began cutting back on its 2016 import orders last year and has been slow in making some payments to creditors and suppliers. Cuba orders much of its imports a year in advance. Cuban…

The entrance to Brazil's largest  reopened on Thursday, after rough seas prevented ships from entering or leaving for more than 30 hours during peak soy export season.   Around 20 ships were delayed entering or leaving the channel, port authority Codesp said.   Santos is the world's largest sugar exporting port and Brazil's top exporter of soybeans. (Reporting by Gustavo Bonato; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Meredith Mazzilli)

U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a fourth week in a row to the lowest level since November 2009, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday, as energy firms keep slashing spending despite a more than 50 percent jump in crude futures since hitting a near 13-year low in February. Drillers cut 3 oil rigs in the week to April 15, bringing the total rig count down to 351, Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report. The number of U.S. oil rigs operating compares with the 734 rigs operating in the same week a year ago. In 2015, drillers cut on average 18 oil rigs per week for a total of 963 for the year, the biggest annual decline since at least 1988 amid the deepest rout in crude prices in a generation.

Venezuela's PDVSA will discharge in the coming days its first cargo of U.S. crude bought from British BP, who along with China Oil was awarded a tender to supply the state-run company with some 8 million barrels in the second quarter, traders close to the deal told Reuters on Wednesday. PDVSA, who is facing delays to load and discharge tankers at its main crude port, Jose, will receive the cargo at the neighboring island of Curacao where it operates a storage facility, according to Thomson Reuters vessel tracking data. The number of tankers waiting to load and discharge at PDVSA's Bullenbay terminal in Curacao has fallen in recent days, the data say, but it has not eased around Jose. The tanker Krymst was loaded with 500,000 barrels of West Texas Intermediate crude at the U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard released a proposed acquisition timeline and requirements for two new heavy U.S. icebreakers that could cost $1 billion each and said it would meet with interested companies during an industry day in March. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft told an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that notice was intended to get information from companies about their ability to build and develop icebreakers that would be in use for 40 years and to explore options such as leasing.

U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a sixth week in the last seven, data showed on Thursday, a sign drillers were still waiting for higher prices before returning to the well pad.   Drillers removed 2 oil rigs in the week ended Dec. 31, bringing the total rig count down to 536, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report.   That decrease brought the total rig count down to about a third of the roughly 1,500 oil rigs operating a year ago. Since the end of the summer, drillers have cut 136 oil rigs.   Baker Hughes issued the report a day ahead of its usual weekly release, due to Friday's New Year holiday.      (Reporting by Barani Krishnan; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

U.S. energy firms this week added oil rigs for the first week in 11, data showed on Friday, despite continued weak crude prices. Drillers added 2 oil rigs in the week ended Nov. 13, bringing the total rig count up to 574, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. That total is about a third of the 1,578 oil rigs operating in same week a year ago. Over the prior 10 weeks, drillers cut 103 oil rigs. The additions this week showed that at least some drillers were willing to start drilling again even with U.S. oil prices trading in the $40s a barrel in hopes of higher prices in the future. U.S. oil futures averaged $43 a barrel so far this week, down from $46 last week.

Venezuelan crude exports to the United States declined 10 percent in September versus the previous month due to lower sales of heavy and medium grades to some of regular customers, according to Reuters trade flows data and PDVSA trade documents. State-run oil company PDVSA and its joint ventures sent 44 crude cargoes to the United States last month carrying 724,230 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 807,065 bpd in August. Sales of diluted crude oil (DCO) made with naphtha rose again to 348,200 bpd, from 311,130 bpd in August, but the increase was not enough to offset an export decline to regular clients including PDVSA's refining unit Citgo Petroleum, Motiva Enterprises, Phillips 66 and PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery.

Twelve Pacific Rim countries on Monday reached the most ambitious trade pact in a generation, aiming to liberalize commerce in 40 percent of the world's economy in a deal that faces skepticism from U.S. lawmakers. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact struck in Atlanta after marathon talks could reshape industries, change the cost of products from cheese to cancer treatments and have repercussions for drug companies and automakers. Tired negotiators worked round the clock over the weekend to settle tough issues such as monopoly rights for new biotech drugs.

U.S. energy firms cut oil rigs for a third week in a row this week, data showed on Friday, a sign the latest crude price weakness was causing drillers to put on hold plans announced several months ago to return to the well pad. Drillers removed 8 rigs in the week ended Sept. 18, bringing the total rig count down to 644, after cutting 23 rigs over the prior two weeks, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report. Those reductions cut into the 47 oil rigs energy firms added in July and August after some drillers followed through on plans to add rigs announced in May and June when U.S. crude futures averaged $60 a barrel. U.S. oil prices, however, have averaged $46 a barrel so far this week, up a bit from the $45 average last week. Earlier on Friday, U.S.

Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA reduced its offshore subsalt field extraction cost to $8 a barrel from $9 a barrel, executives said in a conference call on Friday.   Shares of the company known as Petrobras were down 1.4 percent the day after it reported second-quarter net income had plunged 89 percent and a one-time charge for underperforming assets caught analysts off guard.   Petrobras plans to hook up 33 new wells in the second half of the year, down from 39 in the first half, executives said.     (Reporting by Jeb Blount; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

CME Group on Thursday said force majeure was no longer in effect at a majority of Illinois River terminals that are regular for Chicago Board of Trade corn and soybean futures delivery.   However, the exchange said force majeure conditions due to high water and flooding persisted at some delivery points that might prevent those facilities from loading.   At those locations, under CBOT rules, shippers must arrange for grain to be loaded at another regular facility not under force majeure.     (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

A customs strike in Chile that began last week has started to affect exports and imports, although miners in the top copper producer said this week they have not yet been significantly impacted. The strike by customs officials, who say they want the government to approximately double their workforce, began on May 20, and the union says it will continue indefinitely until an agreement is reached. It rejected a government proposal for a smaller increase in the workforce at the weekend. "We have had dialogue but it has been tense ... what we want is a signal that this will be resolved in the short term but that hasn't arrived," Jorge Thibaut, secretary general of the national association of customs workers (ANFACH) said to journalists on Wednesday.

Approximately 50,000 tonnes of sugar were stored in a warehouse affected by fire in the Teag terminal in Brazil on Monday, Cargill Inc said in a statement. The terminal, a joint venture between Cargill and Biosev , the sugar unit of Louis Dreyfus Commodities , has storage capacity of 110,000 tonnes, according to the statement. A second warehouse at the terminal was not affected. (Reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

Morgan Stanley said on Friday that there is "no assurance" a deal to sell its physical oil trading business to Russian oil company Rosneft will close. The Wall Street bank cited a contractual requirement to get regulatory approvals by year end, and said it "would consider a variety of options" if deal does not close. The news follows a Reuters report last month that Rosneft might back out of the deal because Western sanctions had hurt its ability to finance the operations. A key U.S. regulatory committee has asked the two parties for more information about the deal, but did not approve or reject it. "In the current environment there can be no assurance that the transaction will close…

Cheniere's Corpus Christi, Texas liquefied natural gas export project will not significantly affect the environment, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in a report on Wednesday. With a favorable environmental review, the project will likely receive a construction license from FERC near the end of the year. (Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)