OPEC+ ministers talked openly about the possibility of tweaking their oil-cuts deal, the latest signal that the group is reconsidering its January production hike.   While Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two core members of the cartel, didn’t commit to any policy changes before their Nov. 30 meeting, they reiterated their intention Read more

  Oil managed to stage quite a recovery yesterday, with the market closing higher on the day after it was down more than 5% in early trading in Asia. Strength has continued in early morning trading today. The catalyst for the move was the Russian energy minister, who yesterday met with domestic oil companies to Read more

    Niels-Arne Baden has a problem. The factory he’s building for Green Hydrogen Systems is too small.Plans for the Denmark site to be one of the largest for assembling the machines that make hydrogen from electricity were finalized about a year ago. But demand for those electrolyzers is growing so fast that Baden’s now Read more

  NEW YORK — The United States and Brazil, the two leading ethanol producers, see potential for a large increase in global use of the biofuel as an outright way to cut carbon emissions while the world transitions to all-electric cars, according to industry representatives this week.   “There is a lot of hope (to Read more

  A US$20 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Shandong province, China, has officially been launched for construction. The province is apparently the home of several Chinese refiners according to a local newspaper. Earlier this year, China gave the go-ahead to plans for the colossal refinery and petrochemical complex Yulong, which will include a refinery Read more

  Oman has weathered all the innumerable challenges of 2020 with considerable flair, even though the year started off with the untimely passing of Sultan Qaboos, then came the coronavirus pandemic and the renewal of OPEC+ production curtailments that have dealt the economy the double whammy of lower prices and lower production. The Middle Eastern Read more

  MOSCOW/LONDON: Robust demand from China and India has bolstered physical crude oil prices from around the world, traders said, in contrast to the futures market that is wrestling with over-supply and demand uncertainty wrought by COVID-19.   Global benchmark Brent futures are trading around $40 a barrel, having recovered from more than two-decade lows Read more

  SINGAPPOR: China’s Unipec, the trading arm of state-owned Sinopec, has loaded a very large crude carrier (VLCC) with diesel and is set to ship it to the West next month, two industry sources said on Thursday.   The VLCC is the Chinese refiner’s second to be shipped to the West this year, they said, Read more

    While the oil market speculates on whether or not OPEC+ will ease its production cuts in January amid sluggish demand, rumors emerged on Thursday that the three biggest OPEC producers behind Saudi Arabia may not be on board with extending the current cuts into next year.   Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Read more

  Global demand currently is not supportive for OPEC+ easing the oil production cuts on January 2021, Ibrahim Al-Buainain, president and chief executive of Aramco Trading, told Gulf Intelligence on Wednesday. OPEC and its Russia-led partners will likely consider “a lot of demand issues” before tapering their cuts, he said in an interview with Gulf Read more

  The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies will have to contend with a “lot of demand issues” before raising supply in January 2021, given throughput cuts by oil refiners, the head of Saudi Aramco’s trading arm said. OPEC and its allies plan to raise production by 2 million barrels per Read more

  “Even in the most green of scenarios, oil and gas will still constitute half of the energy basket. We still believe there is life in this business — and not only life, there is promise in it. The only harsh thing is that we need to produce it more cost effectively and cleaner,” he Read more

  The US has imposed fresh sanctions against the Iranian oil sector, for their “financial support” to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), according to the Treasury Department. In a statement on Monday, the Department that said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed the sanctions against the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, Read more

  The US presidential election looks like a binary choice for the energy sector- an incumbent who has championed the fossil fuels industry or a challenger who has vowed to overhaul the world’s largest economy to meet the threat posed by climate change. Yet oil traders are increasingly cautious about casting US president Donald Trump Read more

  Saudi Arabia and Russia will probably agree to extend their oil production cuts and postpone planned increases when they meet for talks with their OPEC+ partners at the end of November. For tactical reasons, both countries are trying to avoid committing to a rollover until the meeting is closer, seeking to keep their options Read more