Chinese refiners have stopped importing US crude oil since early 2019 amid an increasingly bitter trade dispute between Washington and Beijing.There had been expectations of a resumption in the trade at the start of the year following the phase one trade deal between the world’s two largest economies. However, the coronavirus pandemic has ratcheted tensions Read more

Optimism is supposedly back in oil markets, with the Global Research team at Bank of America lifting its oil price forecast for this year and next as demand recovers from coronavirus-linked shutdowns, the OPEC+ output cut deal curtails supply, and producers slash capital expenditure. The bank now sees Brent crude oil averaging $43.70 per barrel Read more

LONDON/NEW YORK – After U.S. crude futures took an historic plunge into negative territory in April, the two top oil price reporting agencies said on Thursday they will start new benchmarks reflecting the price of Gulf Coast-traded crude on tankers, a break from the old landlocked system. The two agencies are battling for primacy to Read more

Commercial oil stocks in the USA last week increased by 1442 thousand barrels – up to 540,722 million barrels, according to the weekly report of the U.S. Department of energy. Inventories of gasoline decreased by 1673 thousand barrels and amounted to 255,322 million barrels, according to Bloomberg.Commercial distillate stocks rose by 249 thousand barrels to Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The Trump administration on Thursday released its plan to open environmentally sensitive areas in Arctic Alaska to oil development, overturning some protections that go back decades. The plan released by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management revokes an Obama-era management system for a huge swathe of federal land on the Read more

Oil India Limited (OIL)’s gas well number 5 at Baghjan in Assam’s Tinsukia, where a blowout on May 27 triggered a continuing oil and gas leakage near the Maguri Motapung Wetland and Dibru Saikhowa Biosphere Reserve, was not assessed for its wildlife and biodiversity impact, according to Union environment ministry’s documents. No wildlife clearance was Read more

“India cannot afford to remain dependent on low cost, low value, low quality products. So we are very keen to focus on certain areas where we have the competitive advantages,” he said at a webinar organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. In sectors like oil and gas and medical devices, India and the US can Read more

New Delhi, The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, on June 25 announced the government will buy home-made biogas from people of Uttar Pradesh.“We are also setting up 5000 biogas plants. People can make compressed biogas from house and agricultural waste and sell it to us. We’ll buy at fair price,” he Read more

Business models across industries have had to adapt to the ‘new normal’ as the world begins to learn and live with the coronavirus until a vaccine is discovered. If a business does not have strong distancing and safety standards, it perhaps does not have customers. In its bid to make fuel filling stations safer, Bharat Read more

India’s largest private refinery halted purchases of Venezuelan oil, putting additional pressure on the Latin American country’s beleaguered oil industry. Reliance Industries Ltd, which runs the biggest refinery in the world in Jamnagar and accounted for 25% of Venezuela’s exports last year, has no plans at the moment to make future purchases, according to people Read more

Oil prices fell $2 a barrel on Wednesday, as investors worried about record high crude inventories and feared that a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic could stall the reopening of global economies and cut fuel demand. Brent crude was down $2.04, or 4.8 per cent , to $40.59 a barrel by 11:03 a.m. EDT Read more

LONDON: Oil prices fell on Wednesday, reversing the previous session’s surge as worries about a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic outweighed support from a gradual reopening of global economies.Brent crude, which on Tuesday rose to its highest level since a price plunge began in March, slipped 47 cents, or 1.1 per cent, to $42.16 Read more

MOSCOW: Russia is taking a leaf out of the US shale playbook so it can ramp up oil production quickly and hang on to its share of the global market when demand finally recovers after the coronavirus pandemic. At least two state-owned banks, Sberbank and VEB, plan to lend oil firms some 400 billion roubles Read more

Refiners such as HollyFrontier Corp and CVR Energy are exploring opportunities to produce renewable diesel to save money on less profitable refineries and offset compliance costs associated with U.S. blending laws.The product, however, currently only occupies a tiny corner of diesel production – and logistical hurdles are likely to limit its growth in coming years. Read more

WARSAW: Poland has signed contracts worth 1.9 billion zlotys ($483 million) to expand its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Swinoujscie on the Baltic Sea to 8.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2023 from 5 bcm now in response to increasing domestic demand. An LNG unit of Poland’s gas infrastructure operator Gaz-System and the ports Read more