Positive Economic Data Pushes Oil Prices Higher

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The US consumer price index increased by 7.1% year-on-year in November, a better-than-expected result that breathed some life into the market. Yet even with Brent testing the $80 per barrel threshold, news of China postponing its closed-door Central Economic Conference (where some had expected an announcement regarding the easing of its Covid policy) and of clinics swamped by long queues of people exhibiting coronavirus symptoms doesn’t bode well for a quick demand recovery.

China’s President Xi Jinping has called on Arab leaders to buy oil and gas in Chinese yuan, calling their countries natural partners, as last week’s China-Arab League meetings overshadowed US President Biden’s visit five months ago.

The International Energy Agency has warned that the EU could face a gas shortage of up to 30 bcm in 2023 if Russia cuts its remaining pipeline deliveries and Chinese demand rebounds from lockdown-induced lows.

The US Department of Energy is to announce Tuesday that scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have achieved a net energy gain from fusion energy for the first time in history.

With the order book of South Korean shipyards swamped by Qatar’s expansion plans, Chinese docks have ratcheted up the market share of new LNG orders massively as three shipyards won nearly 30% of this year’s record 163 orders for new LNG carriers.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called on Iraqi authorities to use this year’s windfall profits towards economic diversification, with the country’s GDP expected to grow 8% in 2022 and the fiscal breakeven level dropping to $66 per barrel.

Electricity generation from France’s nuclear reactors surpassed the 40 GW mark for the first time since March 2022 as the country confronted the Europe-wide cold snap, with prolonged corrosion repairs gradually coming to an end.

Only a few weeks after the COP27 summit, it was reported that several EU countries are trying to weaken the bloc’s pledge to cut methane emissions in the oil and gas sector, with Romania and Hungary claiming it would be too difficult to end routine gas flaring immediately.

For the fourth consecutive week, investors have been reducing their positions in key oil futures and options contracts, selling the equivalent of 30 million barrels in the week ending December 6, bringing the total sell-off tally to 221 million barrels over the four past weeks.

A World Trade Organization panel found that the US import duties of 25% on steel and 10% aluminum established in March 2018 by then-President Trump are inconsistent with international trade obligations and recommended scrapping them.

Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) is reportedly seeking equity investors that would help fund its 110 billion drive to develop the unconventional resources of the giant 200 TCf Jafurah gas field, expected to become a blue hydrogen feed by 2030.

The UK National Grid has asked two contingency coal-fired power plants to be ready to send more electricity to the grid if needed as the Europe-wide cold snap led to an increase in demand amidst lower wind generation rates.

Argentina has secured financing of $689 million from the Brazilian state development bank BNDES to build a new gas pipeline that would supply natural gas from the vast Vaca Muerta shale play northwards to Brazil.

As the European Commission’s scientific arm recommended that Brussels classify lithium as toxic, stymieing potential production across the continent, the EU’s executive arm has pushed back the decision on the issue into 2023.