By Tom Kool
Brent crude hovers near $80 per barrel amid low-volume trading before Christmas. Traders are set to begin the new year amid heightened geopolitical risk in the Middle East.
Friday, December 22, 2023
Trading liquidity has evaporated with Christmas being just around the corner and Angola’s sudden parting ways with OPEC failed to swing oil prices in any direction. With Red Sea diversions becoming the new trend in international shipping, ICE Brent has remained around $80 per barrel whilst WTI moved up to $75 per barrel, marking the second straight week-on-week gain and fully rebounding to levels seen a month ago. Angola Leaves OPEC Amidst Quota Spat. The government of Angola will be leaving OPEC in a political blow to the oil group, saying that membership currently provides the African country with no gains and no longer serves its interests, following in the footsteps Ecuador and Qatar.
Arctic LNG 2 Gets Delayed. Russia’s LNG exporter Novatek (MCX:NVTK) has sent force majeure notifications to some of its clients – Shenergy Group, Zheijang Energy and Repsol – saying the 19.8 mtpa facility will not be able to meet its end-2023 startup date, amidst recently issued US sanctions.
US Oil Companies Unsure About Prospects. The Q4 survey of US oil and gas executives carried out by the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank shows that the corporate outlook fell sharply from 46.8 to -9 as higher interest rates continue to weigh on new activity.
EU Probes Chinese Biodiesel Supplies. The European Union announced it would begin an anti-dumping investigation into biodiesel imports from China, saying these come in at artificially low prices and are undercutting domestic production from the EU, the second Chinese dumping probe this year.
US Gulf Lease Sees Huge Interest. The long-delayed federal lease of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico raised 382 million this week, the highest tally for a federal auction since 2015, with Anadarko posting the lease’s highest bid of more than $25 million for a block in the Mississippi Canyon area.
White House Tightens Price Cap Rules. The US-led coalition imposing a price cap on Russian oil exports stiffened the compliance regime this week, requiring service providers to report every single instance of loading Russian crude, whilst also putting 4 trading companies on the OFAC list.
Regulator’s Denial Turns TMX Delays Real. The Canada Energy Regulator denied a variance request from the operator of the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline to install a smaller-diameter pipe in a 1.4-mile section of the pipe, leading to a postponement in TMX’s launch by at least 2 months.
UAE Oil Champion Ups Covestro Bid. ADNOC, the national oil company of the UAE, is readying to submit a $12.5 billion bid for the German chemicals major Covestro, improving its initial offer with guarantees of job security and some 8 billion in future investments.Related: Only Half of All Ford Dealers Agree to Sell EVs Next Year
French Refinery Halts Amidst Probing. France’s second-largest refinery in Donges, wielding a capacity of 219,000 b/d, has halted operations after regional authorities criticized the state of the refinery, saying TotalEnergies (NYSE:TTE) failed to carry out pipeline inspections and didn’t comply with regional safety guidelines.
Venezuela Signs Another Debt Deal. Venezuela’s national oil company PDVSA will supply the Isla refinery on the Caribbean island of Curacao with $100 million worth of crude as part of a wider debt repayment scheme with operator RdK, seeking to resume supply to the 335,000 b/d refinery.
Malaysia Bans Israel-Going Tankers. Denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza as “brutality against Palestinians”, Malaysia banned all ships owned and flagged by Israel, as well as ships en route to Israel, from docking or loading at the country’s ports, imposing a permanent ban on ZIM Shipping.
China Tightens Screw on Rare Earth Tech. Having placed prohibitive restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals, Beijing added insult to injury by banning the export of technologies to extract and separate rare earth elements (REE), in a blow to the West as China refines 90% of all REEs.
UK North Sea Major Doubles in Size. The largest oil producer in the UK North Sea, Harbour Energy (LON:HBR) agreed to buy the non-Russian oil and gas assets of Wintershall Dea in a $11.2 billion share and cash deal that would make German chemicals major BASF own 46.5% of Harbour.
NB: Tom Kool wrote this article for Oilprice.com
