Goldman Sachs says that Brent is likely to be hit by a softening of demand in China.
Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday that it expects Brent crude to drop to $68 a barrel by the end of 2025, if China's oil demand stays flat until next year. Brent futures traded around $77 a bar by 11:46 a.m. ET (1546 GMT) Tuesday. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI), however, was trading at around $74.16. Goldman Sachs analysts said that "soft China oil demand" and the risk of a slowdown in China's GDP growth strengthened their view that risks for the $75-90 Brent price range in 2025 are skewed to the downside.
China’s 2021 Crude Oil Imports Down 5.7% - BIMCO
Chinese crude oil imports fell year-on-year in June and July, ending a streak of five months of accumulated year-on-year growth. After the first seven months of 2021, China’s crude oil imports are down 5.7% compared with the same period last year. January to July imports stood at 301.9m tons, an 18.1m tons decline from January to July 2020.The June and July decline in crude oil imports is not attributable to unusually low imports as much as to unusually…
China Crude Processing Spikes to All-time High
Chinese refinery crude oil throughput has reached its highest level ever, with total processed volumes up 12% in the first five months of this year compared to 2020, and up 10.9% from the same period in 2019. In total 292.7m tonnes have been processed so far this year according to the National Bureau of Statistics China.Despite the 12.0% growth in crude oil processing, Chinese crude oil supply, which includes imports and domestic production, has only grown by 2.3% in the first five months of this year.
Exxon to Lay Off 300 Workers in Singapore
Exxon Mobil Corp plans to cut its workforce in Singapore, home to its largest oil refining and petrochemical complex, by about 7% amid the "unprecedented market conditions" resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Wednesday.About 300 positions out of 4,000 current jobs will be impacted by the end of 2021, the company said in a statement.The Singapore layoffs come weeks after Exxon announced its plan to close its 72-year-old Altona refinery in Australia and convert it to an import terminal. The top U.S.
Oil Market On Track to Rebalance Around Mid-2021
U.S. petroleum inventories have continued to converge down towards the five-year average, a sign that oil market rebalancing remains on track, despite the resurgence of the coronavirus since the end of 2020.Total stocks of crude oil and products, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve, fell by 12 million barrels last week and are down by 130 million barrels since the middle of 2020.Stocks have fallen in 24 out of the last 30 weeks, according to data from the U.S.
Shell to Slash Jobs and Capacity at Major Singapore Refinery
Royal Dutch Shell will halve crude processing capacity and cut jobs at its Pulau Bukom oil refinery in Singapore as part of an overhaul to reduce its carbon emissions.The refinery on Pulau Bukom, a small island in the Southeast Asian city-state, can process 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and is Shell's largest wholly-owned refinery worldwide.The move brings the total refining capacity cuts by Shell in recent months to 571,000 bpd, or just over…
Refineries around Asia Join Chinese Peers in Increasing Production
Refineries from India to South Korea are expected to increase output from June, joining their Chinese counterparts as the easing of lockdown measures boosts demand for oil products, industry executives said.The average operating rate for refineries in Asia is expected to rise to 75.5% and 82.2% in the third and fourth quarters, respectively, from 72.4% in the second quarter out of total capacity of about 35 million barrels per day, according to energy consultancy FGE.Refineries in countries such as India…
Third Iranian Fuel Cargo Approaches Venezuela
The third cargo of an Iranian tanker flotilla carrying fuel for gasoline-thirsty Venezuela on Tuesday reached the nation's exclusive economic zone as the previous two were discharging at state run PDVSA's ports, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.The Iran-flagged tanker Petunia crossed the Caribbean Sea earlier on Tuesday, following the route taken in recent days by vessels Fortune and Forest.The Fortune was welcomed on Monday at PDVSA's El Palito refinery by Venezuela's oil minister…
Iranian Tanker Docks in Venezuela
The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela has moored at a port serving the El Palito refinery, the oil minister said on Monday, and Refinitiv Eikon data showed a second vessel had entered its waters.Iran is providing Venezuela with 1.53 million barrels of gasoline and refining components in a move criticized by U.S. authorities as both countries are under U.S. sanctions, according to the governments, sources and calculations by TankerTrackers.com.Refinitiv…
India's April Crude Processing in Biggest Drop Since 2003
India's crude oil processing in April slumped by 28.8% from a year earlier, its biggest drop since at least 2003, as a nationwide lockdown weighed on fuel demand and forced refiners to cut production.Refiners processed about 14.75 million tonnes or 3.60 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil last month, government data showed.The lockdown and travel curbs aimed at stemming spread of COVID-19 since March 25 forced people to stay home, cutting India's fuel…
India's Reliance Cuts Pay of Oil & Gas Division's Execs
India's Reliance Industries has cut the pay of some top oil-and-gas division employees by up to 50%, according to six sources and a letter seen by Reuters, as it battles lower profitability because of the coronavirus epidemic.Reliance, headed by India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has decided that employees earning more than 1.5 million rupees ($20,000) a year will face a 10% salary cut, while the cuts will be 30% to 50% for senior executives, the sources said.The pay cuts…
The Numbers Tell the Story of Oil Industry Crisis
Global oil producers and refiners are struggling with a series of unprecedented dislocations as the simultaneous epidemic and volume war between Saudi Arabia and Russia rip through every element of the supply chain.Some idea of the extraordinary speed and scale of the disruptions was evident in the "Weekly Petroleum Status Report" published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.The United States is the world's largest oil consumer and producer…
Oil Prices Fall as Demand Woes Eclipse U.S. Stimulus
Oil prices slipped into negative territory on Wednesday as faltering fuel demand from the spread of the coronavirus outweighed a massive pending U.S. economic stimulus package.Brent crude was down 45 cents, or 1.66%, at $26.70 per barrel at 1029 GMT after earlier rising to a high of $28.29.U.S. crude was down 10 cents, or 0.42%, at $23.91 after a high of $25.24 per barrel.U.S. senators and Trump administration officials have reached an agreement on the $2 trillion stimulus bill which is expected to be passed through Congress later on Wednesday.Still…
U.S. Refiners Control Gasoline, Diesel Oversupply
U.S. refiners have cut seasonal crude processing sharply since the start of the second quarter, averting a potential oversupply of gasoline and distillates, but worsening the build up of crude stocks.U.S. refiners have processed an average 16.64 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude since the start of the year compared with 16.94 million bpd at the same point in 2018 (https://tmsnrt.rs/2N9ziVH).Some of the loss can be attributed to the destruction of the 335…
India's Oil Imports at 3-year Low
India's oil imports fell to their lowest in more than three years in September to 3.82 million barrels per day (bpd), data obtained from industry and shipping sources showed, as some refiners cut purchases due to shutdowns for maintenance and fuel upgrades.Last month, Saudi Arabia replaced Iraq as top oil supplier to India after a gap of about 13 months, the data showed.September oil imports, which dropped below 4 million bpd for the first time since June 2016…
Oil Soars 10%
Oil futures jumped 10% on Monday after an attack on Saudi Arabian crude oil processing facilities over the weekend sliced the kingdom's production in half and threatened to hamper shipments from the world's largest crude exporter.Prices initially surged more than 20% after the open on Sunday evening, with Brent crude posting its biggest intraday gain since the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis, before pulling back as various nations have said they would tap emergency…
Asia: Pertamina, Petronas Join Forces
Indonesian state-owned energy company PT Pertamina and Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) of Malaysia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop oil and gas business – upstream and downstream, not only in Indonesia or Malaysia but also in other countries.As per MoU, Pertamina will swap crude produced in its Malaysian fields of Kikeh, Kimanis and Kidurong with crude from Petronas' Indonesian fields of Jabung and Ketapang, said a Reuters report quoting Pertamina sources.Meanwhile…
Pemex Shrugs off Losses; Eyes New Oilfields
Mexico's national oil company Pemex narrowed its multibillion-dollar losses last year, executives said on Wednesday, as it seeks to fast-track the development of 20 new fields this year in a bid to bring new streams of crude online.Long a source of Mexican pride and a potent political symbol, the state-owned company faces an increasingly uncertain future as oil output slides, leaving it with a $7.6 billion loss in 2018."In 2019, Pemex's main objective is to stabilize crude oil production…
Oil Refiners Face Rollercoaster Ride as Fuel Margins Seesaw
Oil product margins have been tossed around on a wild rollercoaster ride in October, as factors like impending Iran sanctions, the China-U.S. trade war and upcoming shipping regulations yank fuel profits up, down and back again.Some profit margins, known as crack spreads in the industry, including for Asian fuel oil and gasoil have boomed, while others, such as Asian and European gasoline cracks, have plunged.Crack spreads are the difference between the price of crude oil and the price of the products such as diesel and gasoline refined from it.
U.S. Energy Chief Applauds Mexico's Plan to End Fuel Imports
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry praised the goal set out by Mexico's incoming president to end massive gasoline and diesel imports, nearly all of which come from the United States, as a measure that will boost prosperity in its southern neighbor.During a visit on Wednesday to the Mexican capital in which he met with both current officials as well as key advisers to President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Perry brushed off concerns that U.S. refiners stand to lose their biggest foreign market."It's a good goal for Mexico.
