OPEC and Russia’s plan to clear the global oil glut hasn’t worked as they hoped, but there’s little expectation the world’s largest producers will act more aggressively when they meet this weekend.
The Treasury Department has fined Exxon Mobil $2million (£1.5million) for showing “reckless disregard” for US sanctions on Russia while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the oil company’s chief executive.
Libya’s rebounding oil output is undermining the supply curbs masterminded by Saudi Arabia and Russia. But any pleas for the OPEC member to exercise restraint will probably be resisted by the technocrat overseeing the North African nation’s turnaround.
Donald Trump Jr has said he never told his father about a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer who promised him compromising information on rival Hillary Clinton.
Russia wants to stick to the current OPEC deal and would oppose any proposal for deeper production cuts at the group’s ministerial meeting later this month, said four Russian government officials.
For investors in Russia’s energy and metals sectors, the U.S. Senate’s bill to expand sanctions was a blow. Whether it will hurt Russian companies targeted by the legislation is less certain.
Russia’s deal with OPEC has bolstered state coffers by putting a floor under crude prices, but it’s also had one unintended consequence: depressing output in the nation’s West Siberian oil heartlands.
Russians warships in the Mediterranean Sea have fired four cruise missiles at the Islamic State group’s positions in Syria, the defence ministry in Moscow said.
Oil nation’s efforts to re-balance the market via a deal on production cuts have worked, industry experts said, adding that extending the agreement is the right move.
Oil producing nations meet on Thursday to discuss extending production cuts to re-balance crude market supply and demand. The cuts, which came into effect on January 1, comprised a reduction of 1.2million barrels per day for Opec members, and 600,000 for non-Opec states, with Russia making up the bulk of that quota.
The world’s two biggest oil exporters seem to have finally figured out how to eliminate a global surplus that’s kept crude prices in check for almost three years.
Oil jumped to its highest level in two weeks after the Saudi Arabian and Russian energy ministers said they are in favor of extending a production-cut deal for nine months.
Shell said the time has come to debate using Russian crude to help determine the global Brent benchmark, in what would be the most radical shift in how European prices are calculated since the 1970s.
Oil prices were hovering at near five-month lows on Friday, after comments from the Kremlin suggesting indecision over whether to extend production cuts sent crude tumbling overnight.