There is debate over length of OPEC-led oil output cut extension -ISNA

Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said Wednesday that OPEC will continue its production curb but there is debate among members about how long it will continue, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported on Wednesday. “It could be three, six or nine months,” Zanganeh said. Zanganeh said Iran will not decrease its own production and […]

Shell to sell $4.1-billion stake in Canadian Natural

Royal Dutch Shell Plc has decided to offload a roughly $4.1-billion stake in Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL) that it acquired as part of a deal to retreat from Canada’s oil sands earlier this year, people familiar with the situation told Reuters. The energy company has been interviewing investment banks to hire a financial adviser […]

OPEC to prolong oil cuts as delegates predict smooth meeting

OPEC will likely agree to extend production cuts for another nine months, delegates said on Tuesday as the oil producer group meets this week to debate how to tackle a global glut of crude. OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, favors extending the output curbs by nine months rather than the initially planned six months, […]

BP starts oil project that will help double its U.K. output

BP Plc started a project in the U.K. North Sea that will restore production halted since 2013 and help double the company’s output in the area by the end of the decade. BP and its partners budgeted 4.4 billion pounds ($5.7 billion) for the Quad 204 project, which involved building a new floating production and […]

S&P GLOBAL PLATTS PETROCHEMICAL INDEX (PGPI)

GLOBAL PETROCHEMICAL PRICES FELL 3.6% IN APRIL 2017

Prices in the $3 trillion-plus global petrochemicals market fell more than 3.5% in April to $958.51 per metric ton (/mt), according to the just-released monthly average of the S&P Global Platts Petrochemical Index (PGPI), a benchmark of seven widely used petrochemicals. This follows a similar drop in prices in March. On a year-over-year basis, global […]

The markets frustrate OPEC’s efforts to push up oil prices

Know thy enemy The markets frustrate OPEC’s efforts to push up oil prices The cartel is fighting not just shale producers but the futures market Borrowing three words from Mario Draghi, the central banker who helped save the euro zone, Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, and his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, on May 15th […]

Full tanks and tankers: a stubborn oil glut despite OPEC cuts

After the first OPEC oil production cut in eight years took effect in January, oil traders from Houston to Singapore started emptying millions of barrels of crude from storage tanks. Investors hailed the drawdowns as the beginning of the end of a two-year supply glut – raising hopes for steadily rising per-barrel prices. It hasn’t […]

NNPC finalising $6 bln worth of oil-for-product swaps

Nigeria’s state oil company is in the final stage of signing $6 billion worth of deals to exchange more than 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil for imported gasoline and diesel, sources with direct knowledge of the process told Reuters. The contracts, which come three months later than expected, include three more pairs […]

Igho Sanomi signs joint venture deal to build biofuel refinery in the US with African feedstock

Nigerian oil billionaire and non-executive chairman/founder of Taleveras, Igho Sanomi has signed a joint venture deal to build a biofuel refinery in the United States of America (USA) with African feedstock. Igho Sanomi, was featured in the last edition of Ventures Africa’s rich list as one of the continent’s youngest billionaires. The Proposed Integrated Biofuel […]

Oil rises on expectations of extended supply curbs

oil

Oil prices were little changed on Tuesday as the market awaited direction from weekly U.S. inventory data and as Kuwait joined top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia in support of prolonging supply cuts through March 2018 to reduce a global crude glut. “We expect a rangebound trade today with prices largely confining to yesterday’s parameters […]