Oil
Oil eyes supply disruptions as Venezuela rebuild talk falls flat
Even though US President Trump’s kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro has failed to trigger a notable upward movement in oil prices, ICE Brent has little by little recouped some of December’s losses and is now already trading above $62 per barrel.
Whilst the White House tries to entice US majors to return to Venezuela, embargo-driven supply disruptions are much more likely over the upcoming weeks than production increases, OilPrice.com reports.
OPEC+ members confirmed their previous decision to keep production quotas flat in Q1 2026, citing market stability concerns and a seasonally weaker demand outlook, leaving 1.24 million b/d of COVID-era output cuts still unwound.
Chief executives of US oil majors ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) or Chevron (NYSE:CVX) have all declared that they were not consulted about a potential return to Venezuela, ‘before and after’ President Maduro’s capture on January 3.
Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA has started to shut in wells as the US fleet tightens the noose around oil exports, asking joint venture partners to disconnect up to 10 wells per project, impacting CNPC’s Petrosinovensa and Chevron’s Petroboscan.
US refining major Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) has agreed to purchase the assets and infrastructure of the Lindsey oil refinery in northern England, shuttered after last year’s bankruptcy of its owner Prax, vowing to integrate its facilities into its Humber plant.
US President Trump warned India’s authorities that the White House could raise import tariffs on India – already at a punitive rate of 50% – if New Delhi doesn’t meet its demands of curbing purchases of Russian crude oil.
India’s largest refiner, Reliance Industries, has stated that it is not expecting any Russian crude deliveries in January, potentially sending the South Asian country’s imports of Russian oil closer to 1 million b/d after a 1.2 million b/d average last month.
Norway’s energy giant Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) announced it had filed a civil suit in a US District Court, challenging the US Department of the Interior’s decision to suspend $5 billion Empire Wind project, demanding a temporary injunction to allow construction.
Saudi Arabia’s state oil firm Saudi Aramco has lowered its formula prices for February-loading cargoes to Asia by 20-30 cents per barrel, with its benchmark Arab Light grade selling for a mere $0.30/barrel premium over the Oman/Dubai average.
Copper prices surged to a new all-time high after media broke the story of Capstone Copper’s (TSO:CS) Mantoverde mine in northern Chile halting production due to industrial action, sending the three-month LME contract to $13,370/mt.
According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy, crude oil production in the country has fallen by 16-17% to around 500,000 b/d, down by some 90,000 b/d after a gas pipeline explosion at the Rokan block, impacting power generation at upstream sites.
US authorities have slapped a record $9.6 million penalty on Third Coast, the owner of an oil gathering pipeline (MPOG) off the coast of Louisiana, after a November 2023 incident released 27,000 barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.
The US Energy Department has awarded contracts totalling $2.7 billion to three companies with the aim of boosting uranium enrichment over the next 10 years, as Russia remains the only country capable of making high-assay uranium.
China’s leading EV carmaker BYD (SHE:002594) outsold Tesla last year in Europe’s two largest electric vehicle markets – Germany and the United Kingdom – posting an eye-opening 706% and 485% annual growth rate for the two respective countries.
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