Oil
Oil Prices Drop on Trump’s First Day in Office
All eyes were on Donald Trump as the 45th US President was sworn in again as the 47th, sending a flurry of confusing messages to oil markets.
Bullish catalysts ranged from slapping sanctions on Canada, rescinding Chevron’s Venezuelan waiver, and filling up the SPR right to the top, OilPrice.com reports.
On the other hand, the strengthening US dollar could offset some of those pressures. The immediate market reaction to Trump’s orders was nevertheless more bearish, with ICE Brent dipping to $78.50 per barrel.
US President Donald Trump declared a ‘national energy emergency’ to expedite the permitting of oil, gas, and power projects, seeking to lower energy prices in line with his campaign promise of cutting prices by 50% in his 12 months in office.
As the Israel-Gaza ceasefire seems to be holding since Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi militias vowed to limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships, no longer targeting US or British-owned tankers, potentially offsetting soaring freight costs.
Libya’s acting oil minister Khalifa Abdulsadiq said that Libya would need between $3 billion and $4 billion to increase its oil production to 1.6 million b/d, the pre-2011 Civil War target level, pinning great hopes on Tripoli’s upcoming onshore licensing round.
The finance committee of Iraq’s federal parliament has approved a 2025 budget amendment that would allow Baghdad to pay $16 per barrel for crude produced in Kurdistan, paving the way for a potential settlement with the breakaway region.
The operator of the 890,000 b/d Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline is considering expanding its capacity in the next 4-5 years as the threat of US sanctions makes TMX the only non-southbound evacuation conduit, expected to be full by 2028.
One of the key product arteries of the United States, Colonial Pipeline’s Line I which transports gasoline from the Gulf Coast to Greensboro, NC, resumed operations this past weekend after being offline since January 14 due to a leak in Georgia.
China’s coal production has soared to another record high in 2024, reaching 4.76 billion tonnes and marking a 1.3% year-over-year increase, thanks to a surge in output since June 2024 as Beijing eased regulatory pressure on smaller mines.
According to media reports, at least six cargoes of LNG cargoes that were en route to Asia this month were re-routed towards Europe, just as Asia’s benchmark JKM gas futures dipped below $14/mmBtu whilst European prices trade at $14.5/mmBtu.
Kuwait’s national oil company KOC reported a discovery of a large commercial volume of hydrocarbons containing some 800 million barrels of medium-density oil at its offshore Al-Jlaiaa prospect, the Middle Eastern nation’s second major discovery in less than a year.
The expansion project of the Suez Canal, adding some 6 miles of additional navigational leeway to transiting ships near Egypt’s Little Bitter Lake, will be operational in Q1, boosting the waterway’s two-way section to a total of 51 miles.
Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) said he expects oil demand this year to rise by 1.3 million b/d, but considering production caps agreed within OPEC+ they’re looking at expanding their LNG portfolio.
Oil production in North Dakota dropped by 125,000-150,000 b/d as extreme cold weather forced some operators to shut in production wells across the Bakken, equivalent to 12% of the region’s 1.1 million b/d output, with similar declines in gas production, too.
Argentina’s state-owned oil company YPF (NYSE:YPF) signed a memorandum of understanding with three Indian energy firms – ONGC, GAIL, and Oil India – to potentially export up to 10 million metric tonnes of LNG from Vaca Muerta.