No matter where you look in the oil market, key markers watched by traders have been going haywire since Wednesday -- and they show little sign of letting up. Whether it’s a futures curve suddenly suggesting concerns that supply is shrinking or record trading of contracts designed to protect against price fluctuations, OPEC’s first output cut in eight years has sent the market into a spin.
After months of meetings from Doha to Moscow, it was a 2 a.m. phone call between two of the most powerful men in the global oil industry that finally broke the impasse.
Oil prices are unlikely to increases significantly this week despite the recent Opec output reduction deal as US inventories remain well stocked, S&P Global Platts analysis indicates.
Data and analytics firm McKinsey Energy Insights (MEI) has said it does not expect the oil supply glut to be soaked up for at least another six months.
Oil prices slumped today after a survey was published indicating OPEC production hit record highs last month while the US rig count also soared.
OPEC’s output for July likely rose after Iraq and Nigeria pumped out greater volumes in July despite attacks on installations from militants, the Reuters survey said.
Meanwhile, 44 new oil drilling rigs came online in the US in July, the biggest monthly increase in two years, heightening fears of another oil glut.
Oil markets are signaling that prices have bottomed out even as growth in demand for crude is forecast to slow this year, according to a senior executive at Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trader.
Oil prices firmed in thin Easter holiday trading today, adding to gains in recent weeks as optimism holds that a production freeze among major producers may be implemented.
Oil markets jumped as much as 7% today as speculation about falling US shale output and a rally in equities fed the notion that crude prices may be bottoming after their 20-month collapse.
The influential International Energy Agency sees oil markets rebalancing in 2017 thanks to falling US production but the decline will prove short-lived as efficiency gains will push U.S. output to new records by the beginning of the next decade.
Oil rose today after Russia repeated its willingness to take part in talks with Opec producers to cut output and boost prices, although analysts said rising US crude inventories could put a brake on a bigger rally.
The World Bank has slashed its forecast for crude oil prices by $14 to $37 per barrel for 2016 amid growing supply and weak demand prospects from emerging markets.
Oil rose more than 5% yesterday, with Brent going above $32 a barrel on hopes Opec and non-Opec producers were inching closer to a deal to reduce output in the face of one of the biggest supply gluts in decades.
Oil prices are down by 3% after Iraq announced record-high production feeding into a heavily oversupplied market, wiping out much of the gains made in one of the biggest-ever daily rallies last week.
Oil prices fell more than 2% today after Goldman Sachs cut its crude forecasts, citing global oversupply and concerns over the Chinese economy, and after Saudi Arabia dismissed the idea of an oil producer summit.
Russian energy firms are weathering low oil prices and will continue to increase output in the next few years even if Saudi Arabia raises production to depress prices further, one of Russia's fastest growing oil companies says.
Gazprom Neft, Russia's third-largest oil producer owned by state-run gas producer Gazprom, said that due to abundant supply and technological developments oil prices may have returned for a prolonged period to the $30-$40 per barrel range seen before the commodities boom of the 2000s.
Some oil projects won't be viable at such low prices but most of those won't be in Russia, where field development will prove resilient even at $20-$35 per barrel - much lower than in the United States, the Arctic or on large offshore deposits.
OPEC's second-largest producer, Iraq, plans to export near-record volumes of Basra crude in September, up 20 percent from August, as it ramps up heavy oil production, trade sources said on Thursday.
"There were a number of wells shut-in before Basra Heavy came out to minimise the quality impact on Basra Light," a source with knowledge of Iraqi oil production said. "Those are now being restarted."
Iraq allocated 3.017 million barrels per day (bpd) of Basra crude for export in September, up from 2.52 million bpd in August, traders said, citing a preliminary loading programme from the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).
OPEC on Tuesday raised its forecast of oil supplies from non-member countries in 2015, a sign that oil's price collapse is taking longer to impact on shale and other competing sources than previously thought.
In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its forecast for non-OPEC supply this year by about 90,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Crude oil fell about 2% today, the first decline after three days of gains, as worries over the Greek fiscal crisis, weaker oil products prices and pre-weekend profit-taking undercut the market.