Scott Shelton News

U.S. crude oil shipments to China will rise sharply in coming weeks, U.S. traders and shipbrokers and Chinese importers said, as the world’s top economies gear up to review a January deal after a prolonged trade war.Chinese state-owned oil firms have tentatively booked tankers to carry at least 20 million barrels of U.S. crude for August and September, the people said, moves that may ease U.S. concerns that China’s purchases are trending well short of purchase commitments under the Phase 1 of the trade deal.China had emerged as a top U.S.

Oil markets are bracing for a reshuffle of global trade flows as China threatens to impose tit-for-tat tariffs on imports of U.S. energy products, including crude.China, which has bought an average 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) of U.S. crude oil this year, is threatening to place a 25 percent tariff on various U.S. commodity exports, including crude oil, although it is so far unclear when such a measure would come in place.The decision came in response to U.S. President Donald…

Oil prices jumped as much as 6 percent on Wednesday after OPEC sources said the group has reached a deal to limit crude output at its policy meeting in November, a source for the producer group said. Brent crude was up $2.76, or 6 percent, at $48.73 a barrel by 2:28 p.m. EDT (1820 GMT), after reaching a more than two-week high of $48.96. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by $2.35, or 5.4 percent, to $47.02, peaking at $47.45, its highest since Sept 8. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has agreed to limit production to 32.5 million barrels per day, OPEC sources said after talks held by the group on the sidelines of the Sept. 26-28 International Energy Forum in Algiers. The latest production figure for the group is 33.24 million bpd.

Oil prices surged 4 percent on Wednesday, with Brent settling above the psychological $50 a barrel mark, after a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories. It was a second straight day of gains for oil, which has risen nearly 8 percent since Monday's settlement to recover almost all of what it lost after Britain's shock vote to exit the European Union. Fading concerns over the so-called Brexit, potential for an oil workers' strike in Norway and a crisis in Venezuela's energy sector were among factors supporting Wednesday's rally. While spot contracts in Brent and U.S. crude surged, the premium for longer-dated oil spiked too as traders bet crude in storage will fetch better prices in coming months. The U.S.

Crude oil prices rose about 3 percent on Tuesday on the back of a rally in the gasoline market and as a tumbling dollar boosted commodities denominated in the greenback after bets the Federal Reserve will hold U.S. interest rates where they are. U.S. gasoline futures rallied more than 3 percent to their highest since August on Tuesday, boosting refinery margins, after a series of Gulf Coast refinery unit outages, buying from Venezuela and a reported drop in New York inventories. "I think the market has become more optimistic on oil products," said Scott Shelton, broker and commodities specialist with ICAP in Durham, North California. Analysts polled by Reuters expect the U.S.

Oil prices extended their freefall on Friday, flirting with 11-year lows, after the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that global oversupply of crude could worsen next year. Brent and U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell as much as 5 percent on the day and 12 percent on the week as mild pre-winter weather and a plummeting U.S. stock market added to the toll on oil prices. Oil traders and analysts alike have been perplexed by oil's decline since the Dec. 4 meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries which all but abandoned price support for crude by removing OPEC's production ceiling in an oversupplied market. "It's very tough to find a cause to get bullish here," said Peter Donovan, broker at Liquidity Energy in New York.

U.S. crude oil prices on Friday dove below $40 a barrel for the first time since the 2009 financial crisis, notching their longest weekly losing streak in 29 years after a further rise in U.S. drilling and a drop in Chinese manufacturing. Oil prices pushed briefly below the $40-pivot mark following weekly data that showed U.S. energy firms added two oil drilling rigs last week, the fifth increase in a row. The rise in rigs, which is emerging now after a second quarter lull in prices, is adding to concerns U.S. shale production is proving slow to respond to falling prices, prolonging a global glut. "Everyone is still looking at it saying 'Wow, you still don't have production coming down,'" said Tariq Zahir, founder at Tyche Capital in Laurel Hollow, New York.