Growing optimism, growing risks? The price of Brent crude closed last week at $64.63 after reaching $66.78 on Feb. 25, but was still up for the week by 2.73%, Stratas Advisors says in its latest oil price forecast.
Analysts said WTI crude increased late in the day as more Texas oil refineries started to return to service, including Valero Energy’s Port Arthur plant and Citgo Petroleum’s Corpus Christi plant.
After the increase during the past two weeks of Brent by 12.2% and WTI by 14.4%, crude prices are now back to the range they were for much of 2019 and more developments are on the way, Stratas Advisors says in its latest oil price forecast.
In January, oil from the US and Canada accounted for 11% of India’s imports.
Qatar Petroleum and Exxon Mobil are betting big on LNG and natural gas as the demand outlook appears promising for both.
The increase in crude oil stocks in the U.S. was also driven by a big jump in crude imports, which rose by a net 1.66 million bbl/d, the EIA said.
OPEC and other oil producers, a group known as OPEC+, are considering rolling over production cuts into April instead of raising output as a recovery in oil demand remains fragile due to the coronavirus crisis, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters on March 3.
At CERAWeek, OPEC vs. U.S. shale is often discussed as a showdown between competing interests, but the dynamic of Texas vs. the Middle East is nearly invisible this year.
OPEC and other key exporters such as Russia, a grouping dubbed OPEC+, meet on March 4 and are expected to discuss allowing as much as 1.5 million bbl/d back into the market
Growing optimism, growing risks? The price of Brent crude closed last week at $64.63 after reaching $66.78 on Feb. 25, but was still up for the week by 2.73%, Stratas Advisors says in its latest oil price forecast.
OPEC oil output fell in February as a voluntary cut by Saudi Arabia added to agreed reductions under a pact with allies, a Reuters survey found on March 1, ending a run of seven consecutive monthly increases.
The $8 billion Jordan Cove LNG export project in Oregon is one of several major energy projects that received strong support from former U.S. President Donald Trump but have since failed to move forward.
Demand was 360 million tonnes last year, up slightly from 2019’s 358 million tonnes.
Gas prices, which usually trade around $3 per MMBtu, rocketed to over $300 per MMBtu at some hubs, while power prices, which usually trade around $25 per megawatt-hour in Texas, soared to over $10,000 at times.