Oil rig
Oil Slips as Market Eyes Potential Venezuela Supply Boost
Oil traded slightly lower on Friday as traders weighed trade talk optimism and the potential of more oil supply from Venezuela,OilPrice.com reports.
ICE Brent futures remained rangebound as market participants weighed the impact of Venezuela’s potential return to the US markets, happening against the background of global macroeconomic worries subsiding a little, on the back of a US-Japan trade deal lauded by Donald Trump. OPEC+ could project another bullish narrative when its ministerial committee meets this Monday, making it likely that next week would still see Brent hovering around $70 per barrel.
According to media reports, Donald Trump’s administration Is preparing to grant new authorizations to oil companies with assets in Venezuela, allowing them to operate with limitations and swap the produced oil, in a rare policy shift.
US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) is reportedly in negotiations with the Trinidad and Tobago government to sign an exploration and production deal on seven deepwater blocks north of Guyana’s Stabroek block, 20 years after it left the Caribbean country.
Loadings of the light sweet CPC Blend from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk were temporarily halted due to Russia imposing new regulations this week, demanding that every tanker loading CPC receive an approval from the FSB security service.
California’s government is desperately trying to find a buyer for the 145,000 b/d Benicia refinery next to San Francisco, set for an early 2026 closure after operator Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO) could no longer make ends meet, offering the plant to others.
Puerto Rico is reportedly halting negotiations with US LNG developer New Fortress Energy on a $20 billion LNG supply deal after the state’s financial watchdog vetoed it over monopoly concerns, citing NFE’s unwillingness to discuss changes to the contract.
US private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners is emerging as the top bidder for BP’s lubricants business Castrol, bidding for the entire $9-10 billion asset, as previous suitors Reliance Industries and Saudi Aramco dropped out of the competition.
Argentina’s oil and gas production hit a two-decade high in June, according to the country’s authorities, buoyed by soaring shale production from the giant Vaca Muerta basin, up 22% year-over-year with crude output already moving past 450,000 b/d.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro threatened to change Glencore’s (LON:GLEN) concession contract in the country if the mining giant continues to export coal to Israel, in line with Bogota’s ban on fuel exports to Israel over its assault on the Gaza Strip.
US copper prices traded on the COMEX exchange reached an all-time high this week, hitting $5.93 per pound on Wednesday, ahead of the planned August 1 start of 50% import tariffs on the transition metal, as imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Norway’s state oil company Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) booked a 955 million impairment on its Empire Wind offshore wind farm in New York state after the Trump administration suspended offshore wind leases, lowering the firm’s Q2 net profit by 30% to $1.3 billion.
A White House communique indicated that the United States and Japan are exploring a ‘new offtake agreement’ for the $40 billion Alaska LNG project as part of a wider trade deal that will introduce a baseline 15% tariff for Japanese exports to the US.
Saudi Arabia’s imports of Russian fuel oil rose to their highest on record last month to 212,000 b/d, as the Middle Eastern kingdom has been stocking up on fuel for electricity generation as temperatures regularly exceed 45 degrees Celsius in July-August.
UK major BP (NYSE:BP), the operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline that ships Azeri oil to the Mediterranean, stated that it detected organic chloride contaminants in some oil tanks at Ceyhan after loadings were halted this week, tightening the European market.
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