Oil Price Fall News

How have major events such as the U.S./China trade war, oil price fall and COVID-19 impacted Twin Disc’s commercial marine business to date, and what adjustments have you made in response?These are the three things that I’ve been highlighting in employee communications and with investors over the last few months. For us, COVID was just the third punch after the other two. China is typically our second largest market after the U.S., and we lost lots of orders to our competitors as the trade war started to affect us. It’s rebounding a little, but it definitely impacted our sales into China.

Greek shipowner GasLog has taken delivery of a newbuild liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier from Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries. The 180,000-cubic-meter-capacity GasLog Wales will operate on a 12-year time charter agreement with the principal LNG shipping entity of Japan’s JERA, GasLog said in its latest quarterly report.The handover follows the April 1 delivery of Samsung-built sister ship GasLog Windsor, now on a seven-year charter with a wholly owned subsidiary…

Brent down 12 pct since OPEC-led production cut extension. Oil prices steadied on Friday after steep falls earlier in the week under pressure from widespread evidence of a fuel glut despite efforts led by OPEC to tighten the market. Brent crude oil was up 10 cents at $47.96 a barrel by 1130 GMT, but still 12 percent below its opening level on May 25, when an OPEC promise to restrict production was extended into 2018. U.S. crude was 10 cents higher at $45.74. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other big producers have agreed to pump almost 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) less than they supplied at the end of last year, and hold output there until the first quarter of 2018. But world markets are still awash with oil.

Maersk Line lost market share in container shipping in the first quarter, disappointing analysts who said A.P. Moller-Maersk's  forecast-beating results on Wednesday had been helped by one-offs. While the world's largest container shipping business reported a jump in net profit to $714 million from $454 million, due largely to lower bunker fuel prices, analysts noted the Danish conglomerate failed to announce divestments or investor perks such as share buybacks and additional dividends, as it had in recent quarters.

A fall in oil prices may help long-term exploitation of fossil fuels in the Arctic by averting a short-lived "gold rush" into the vulnerable icy region, Norway's Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said on Thursday. Exploitation of oil and gas required long planning to safeguard the fragile environment, which is heating up faster than the world average because of global warming, he said. "It is safe to assume that Arctic gas will have its day," he said in a speech at an Arctic conference, saying that burning natural gas emitted half the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide as coal.

Russia's rouble and shares hit new lows on Friday as oil prices collapsed after OPEC decided to leave its output unchanged despite heavy oversupply. At 1000 GMT, the rouble was around 2.2 percent below the previous close at 49.72 roubles per dollar, and 1.7 percent weaker against the euro at 61.94 roubles . It earlier hit an all-time low of 49.90 to the dollar. Traders said market moves were exacerbated by thin volumes, which mean that even small purchases of foreign currency were able to move the market. Brent crude was last trading at around $72 a barrel after falling as much as $6.50 a barrel a day earlier, when the OPEC oil producer group made known its decision not to cut its output targets.

The drop in global oil prices should not affect the spending plans of oil-producing countries in the Middle East in the near-term given their large financial reserves, the head of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department said on Friday. The official, Masood Ahmed, told reporters that every oil producer in the region outside of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Bahrain were running fiscal deficits, and that the drop in prices would push those budget gaps even wider. However, he said their sizable financial reserves would allow those countries to continue with their spending plans in the short-term, although the price drop has raised a longer-term issue. (Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Paul Simao)

In a recent report, the energy & marine industry analysts Douglas-Westwood, has revealed that operations of cable controlled work-class remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) is a business worth $600 million worldwide and this is forecast to grow to $725 million by 2008. The firm reported these results in ‘The World AUV & ROV Report,’ a new global business study published. In his keynote address to delegates at the ‘Advances in Technology for Underwater Vehicles’ conference in London today…

In a recent report, the energy & marine industry analysts Douglas-Westwood, has revealed that operations of cable controlled 'work-class' remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) is a business worth $600 million worldwide and this is forecast to grow to $725 million by 2008. The firm reported these results in 'The World AUV & ROV Report,' a new global business study published. In his keynote address to delegates at the 'Advances in Technology for Underwater Vehicles' conference in London, DWL's John Westwood said he expected this growth to mainly come from the oil & gas sector as increasing demand raises ROV utilization and day rates.

Norway, shocked by a collapse in oil prices last year to below $10 per barrel, has lifted contacts with other crude producing countries to unprecedented levels, Deputy Oil Minister Erling Grimstad said. He said close contacts with producer nations, including members of OPEC, would continue even though prices have more than doubled to above $23 per barrel. But Norway has no plans for formal participation in OPEC. "Norway, after the price collapse in 1998, intensified contact with OPEC and other oil producing countries...During that period we have had closer cooperation and contact than we have had at previous times," Grimstad said. "We will continue to have close cooperation with oil producing countries...we see this as in our best interests.