Oil Analysts News

A tanker of U.S. sour crude was delivered at Germany's port of Rostock last week for the first time ever, according to sources, analysts and vessel tracking data, as local refiners test alternatives to Russian oil.The European Union plans an almost-complete embargo of Russian barrels by year-end, and is trying to wean itself off Russian crude imports, which have fed inland refineries in Germany, Poland and other central European nations via pipeline.Refiners plan to replace Russian oil with seaborne Norwegian, Saudi Arabian, British and U.S. crude grades. Russia has already shown through its natural gas exports that it is willing to cut off European destinations in a tit-for-tat over the EU's financial sanctions that followed Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Brazil's right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro fired the chief executive of oil producer Petrobras - the second in two months - after the company refused to sell fuels at a discount to consumers warning it would lead to diesel shortages. Bolsonaro also called for the election of a new board, according to a statement released close to midnight local time on Monday by the state-controlled company, opening the way to a full executive management shake-up.José Mauro Ferreira Coelho is the third Petrobras CEO fired by Bolsonaro over fuel prices.

When Cambodian officials commemorated the start of the country's first oil project in June by preserving the first drops of production at a high-profile ceremony, they heralded the country's emergence as a budding oil exporter at the heart of Asia.But instead of reaping royalties, Cambodia's government has filed a theft complaint against the crew of the tanker that stored the crude, after they sailed away with the oil amid a payment dispute with the oil field's developer.Singapore-based KrisEnergy…

Last year, China replaced the United States as the No. 1 importer of oil from Venezuela, yet another front in the heated rivalry between Washington and Beijing.The United States had imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company as part of a bid to topple that country’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. U.S. refineries stopped buying Venezuelan crude. Caracas’ ally China, long a major customer, suddenly found itself the top purchaser. Through the first six months of 2019, it imported an average of 350,000 barrels per day of crude from Venezuela.But in August, Washington tightened its sanctions on Venezuela, warning that any foreign entity that continued to do business with the South American country’s government could find itself subject to sanctions.

Oil prices are becoming dangerously overheated as speculators anticipate a rebalancing of supply and demand that has barely started, according to many oil analysts. "Even as oil rallies, analysts have barely nudged up their price forecasts as they worry that crude's recent gains might not be sustainable," notes the Wall Street Journal ("Analysts just aren't buying the oil rally", April 28). Many fear hedge funds are pushing up oil prices prematurely, which will lead to a renewed crash when the bubble bursts, as it did after the last big run-up in prices between January and May 2015. Hedge funds and other money managers have accumulated a record net long position in Brent and WTI futures and options, betting on a further rise in prices equivalent to 656 million barrels of crude.

An Iranian supertanker with two million barrels of oil is heading to Asia after sitting in Iranian waters for months, the first vessel storing crude offshore to sail after a nuclear deal this week, data showed on Thursday. Iran and six major world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal on Tuesday, clearing the way for an easing of international sanctions on Tehran and higher oil exports. While oil analysts do not expect Iran to make a major return to the market until next year, it has been parking millions of barrels of oil on tankers for months. The fully laden Starla, operated by Iran's top tanker group NITC, had been used for floating storage since Dec. 12, 2014, a tanker tracking source said. "This is the first tanker to come off floating storage," the source said.

Iran, the United States and five other major powers reached an agreement to restrain the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. Q: Can you outline the timeline from here? "The P5+1 will now work on a UN resolution to endorse the deal; separately, domestic legislatures and other processes will review text, in the U.S, that includes a 60-day review period; 90 days from today the deal goes into implementation mode in which Iran does a number of nuke steps, and the P5+1 establish legal conditions for relief, but it doesn't get activated until the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) issues a report verifying Iran did what it said it would do, which Secretary (of State John) Kerry put at about 6 months, and which I think is about right, as noted before.

China's crude imports down 23 pct in May; OPEC oil production likely to continue to exceed demand. Oil prices slipped on Monday on news of a slide in China's fuel imports and as markets digested OPEC's decision to maintain its production target, which analysts said could prolong a supply glut for the rest of the year. China, the world's biggest net oil importer, bought nearly a quarter less crude in May than it did in the previous month, official data showed. China's imports of oil products also fell by more than 6 percent while oil product exports fell 10 percent. The Chinese data came after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed on Friday to maintain oil output at levels well above current demand…

Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria and now Iraq: the crude oil market has weathered a long list of actual and threatened supply shocks with remarkable calm. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), unplanned disruptions have removed around 2.5 million barrels per day from the crude market since the start of 2011. But for most of that time, Brent, the international marker, has traded in a narrow range around $105 per barrel and daily price volatility has fallen to the lowest level for 20 years.

High rates have lured a significant number of tanker owners into forking out the relatively small costs associated with converting their ships from Category 1 to Category 2 vessels. Category 1 vessels are those of 20,000 dwt and above carrying crude, fuel, heavy or lubricating oils as cargo, and “pre Marpol” tankers of 30,000 dwt and more carrying other oils. Pre Marpol means ships that do not have protectively located segregated ballast tanks. Category 2 vessels, on the other hand, do have protectively located segregated ballast tanks. The net result, according to Norway’s Platou, is that some 30m dwt of vessels due to leave the fleet during 2005 will not now do so.

Oil prices rocketed to a new nine-year high on Nov. 22 after Iraq suspended oil exports under its humanitarian exchange program with the United Nations. London January Brent futures opened at $25.90, the highest oil price since January 1991, when allied forces were preparing to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Later in the day Brent stood at $25.67 a barrel, 63 cents up from Friday's close. Prices leapt as Iraq's Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rasheed confirmed that Iraq had stopped oil deliveries under the latest six-month phase of its oil-for-food exchange with the UN. Baghdad protested the UN's proposal to extend by two weeks the sixth phase of the program and accused the United States of trying to push other Security Council members into accept a draft resolution on weapons inspections.

Oil prices rocketed to a new nine-year high Nov. 22 after Iraq suspended oil exports under its humanitarian exchange program with the United Nations. London January Brent futures opened at $25.90, the highest oil price since January 1991 when allied forces were preparing to eject Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Prices leapt as Iraq's Oil Minister Amir Mohammed Rasheed confirmed that Iraq had stopped oil deliveries under the latest six-month phase of its oil-for-food exchange with the UN. Baghdad protested the UN's proposal to extend by two weeks the sixth phase of the program and accused the United States of trying to push other Security Council members into accepting a draft resolution on weapons inspections.