OPEC forecasts that the world oil market will be more balanced in the second half of 2016 as outages in Nigeria and Canada help to speed up the erosion of a supply glut. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pointed in a monthly report to supply exceeding demand by just 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) in… Continue Reading »
Oil’s recovery from a 12-year low may be too good to last as Iranian output rebounds faster than expected. OPEC last week stuck to its policy of unfettered production, deciding against a new output ceiling as the price rally supported optimism among its members that the oil market is improving. Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran’s oil… Continue Reading »
Russian oil billionaire Vagit Alekperov isn’t easily swayed, but Saudi Arabia’s new Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih achieved it this week. Intense diplomacy by the soft-spoken Falih at his first OPEC meeting – with his speech peppered by words such as “gentle approach”, “no shocks” and “consensus” – has persuaded Alekperov that OPEC is more alive… Continue Reading »
The global crude oversupply that has caused prices to slump since 2014 is correcting itself, the oil minister of the United Arab Emirates said Tuesday on arrival in Vienna ahead of an OPEC meeting this week. “From the beginning of the year until now, the market has been correcting itself upward,” U.A.E. Oil Minister Suhail… Continue Reading »
OPEC is set for another showdown between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran when it meets on Thursday, with Riyadh trying to revive coordinated action and set a formal oil output target but Tehran rejecting the idea. Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shia Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings,… Continue Reading »
Oil narrowed a decline as a labor strike in Kuwait cut output for a second day, counteracting the failure of producing nations to reach an output-freeze agreement in Doha. Kuwait was seeking to restore crude production as thousands of oil workers stayed off their jobs for a second day in a strike that’s slashed the… Continue Reading »
The African nation of Gabon wants to rejoin OPEC after more than two decades, two OPEC sources said, becoming the second former member in a year to seek a return to the oil exporters’ group just as it is taking the first steps in years to prop up prices. If it returned, Gabon would be… Continue Reading »
Kuwaiti oil workers will go ahead with a strike starting on Sunday, their union head said, rejecting an offer from the state oil company to suspend the implementation of public sector pay reforms. Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries agreed to temporarily freeze a planned government overhaul of the payroll system and seek a… Continue Reading »
Oil prices have probably bottomed out and will rise from now on though the recovery will be slow due to a huge stocks overhang, some of the biggest oil trading executives said on Tuesday. “The downturn in oil markets is behind us … The trend is now up … But rebalancing will take time. We… Continue Reading »
In the energy world, India is becoming the new China. The world’s second-most populous nation is increasingly becoming the center for oil demand growth as its economy expands by luring the type of manufacturing that China is trying to shun. And just like China a decade ago, India is trying to hedge its future energy… Continue Reading »
