Oil rig
Global Oil Markets: Traders Look for Bullish Cues Ahead of Crucial US Fed Meeting
Battered by weak economic data from China, oil prices have struggled to move closer to the $80 per barrel mark with ICE Brent now trading at $78 per barrel. With speculative positions tilted towards the bearish, the market will be looking at the Fed’s minutes and Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech for bullish cues. Seeing Libya’s supply disruption dissipate, there are not that many currently.
According to Ernst & Young, a total of $49.2 billion was spent on mergers and acquisitions in 2023, up 57% on the year, with the $59.5 billion Exxon-Pioneer deal alone set to surpass last year’s total and the $53 billion Chevron-Hess deal closing next year, OilPrice.com reports.
As Canadian rail workers ready for a nationwide strike on 22 August, rail movements of undiluted bitumen across Alberta could be jeopardized, however, for crude the impact should be relatively minor as TMX could accommodate some 200,000 b/d more oil.
In Guyana’s first-ever competitive bidding round, the South American country has finalized production sharing contracts for eight offshore blocks, with deals signed with TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, Petronas, Hess, CNOOC as well as ExxonMobil.
French oil major TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) is set to sign a deal with Kuwait to construct a 1,100 MW solar photovoltaic plant in a consortium with regional firms Acwa Power and Masdar as Kuwait seeks to bring renewable generation to 15% by 2030.
Gold prices have soared above $2,500 per ounce for the first time in history, and even though the bullion has dipped marginally since, the triple whammy of recession fears, geopolitical tensions and persistently high demand will most probably push gold even higher.
After Lebanon’s only remaining operational power plant exhausted its fuel supply on 17 August, prompting a nationwide blackout, Algeria has promised to step in and deliver fuel oil to the cash-strapped country in the Eastern Mediterranean.
An oil slick of about 90 square miles has formed in Venezuela’s Golfe Triste, located next to the 146,000 b/d El Palito refinery, aggravating oil contamination in the country that witnessed 86 oil spills in both 2022 and 2023.
Niger will be resuming oil exports through the territory of neighboring Benin after the 1,200-mile pipeline connecting the two countries was shut in June amidst military tensions, blocking CNPC’s production ramp-up from the Agadem oil field.
The Chinese government has approved five new nuclear power projects with a combined design capacity of 2,866 MW, adding a boost to the country’s current 56 operational reactors as Beijing prioritizes no-emission power generation.
In a sign that Libyan supply disruptions could ease soon, the country’s national oil company said that production at the 300,000 b/d Sharara field (blocked for two weeks) has risen to some 85,000 b/d to maintain refinery runs at the Zawia refinery.
Copper’s benchmark three-month contract has recovered to $9,110 per metric tonne this week after Chinese copper exports dropped 40% from June to 140,940 tonnes, indicating that demand conditions are improving in China.
The new President of Senegal Diomaye Faye has set up a commission of legal and tax experts to review the country’s oil and gas contracts to ‘rebalance’ them in the national interest, just as the 100,000 b/d Sangomar project started producing this June.
The Mexican government gave state oil company Pemex a tax break for the fourth time this year already, not paying any profit-sharing levies nor production taxes in July and saving more than $6 billion in tax payments in 2024 to date.
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