2017-08-29 18:20:00
OIL PRICE: NOT ABOVE $52 AGAIN
REUTERS , BLOOMBERG , OILPRICE - Crude prices dipped on Tuesday as the market grappled with the shutdown of some 13 percent of refining capacity in the United States after a hurricane ripped through the heart of the country's oil industry.
The refinery closures helped push U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 to a two-year high of $1.7799 per gallon on Monday, although they had receded to $1.7030 by 1158 GMT on Tuesday.
International Brent crude futures LCOc1 were 32 cents lower at $51.57 per barrel, having traded as high as $52.19 earlier in the day.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 edged down 5 cents to $46.52 a barrel, after falling more than 2 percent in the previous session.
The damage assessment could lead to more volatility. Some refineries were preparing for restarts, but heavy rains are expected to last through Wednesday, adding to catastrophic flooding in Houston.
"Refineries in Asia should run much harder to make up for (U.S. closures), which is supportive for Brent," said Olivier Jakob, managing director of oil analysis firm PetroMatrix.
Still, Jakob warned that the scale of U.S. upstream outages was not yet clear, and extensive damage on oilfields or pipelines could boost WTI prices.
Tropical Storm Harvey, which has been downgraded from a hurricane, hit oil refiners harder than crude producers.
"Around 2-3 million bpd (barrels per day) of refining capacity is offline or in the process of shutting down ... (and) more than 500,000 bpd of oil production... is offline," Barclays bank said.
It added that the storm's impact would "linger for several more weeks."
As a result, the discount of U.S. WTI versus Brent surpassed $5 per barrel, its widest in more than two years.
Crude markets were also looking at disruptions in Libya and Colombia.
In Libya, militia pipeline blockades closed three oilfields and forced state-run National Oil Corp to declare force majeure at several sites. The 280,000-bpd Sharara field, the OPEC member's largest, has been shut for around a week.
In Colombia, a bomb attack by the leftist ELN rebel group halted pumping operations along the country's second-largest oil pipeline, the 210,000-bpd Cano-Limon Covenas.
Despite this, crude remains in ample supply, resulting in low prices.
"We are thus lowering our Brent oil price estimates to $55 per barrel from $60 per barrel in 4Q17 (and) to $57 per barrel from $64 per barrel in 2018," Jefferies bank said.
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Earlier:
August, 28, 20:00:00
OIL PRICE: NOT ABOVE $53 AGAINU.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were down 52 cents at $47.35 a barrel. Brent crude LCOc1 was down 12 cents at $52.29 per barrel. |
August, 24, 14:30:00
OIL PRICE: NOT ABOVE $53Brent crude futures, LCOc1 the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $51.92 per barrel at 0652 GMT, down 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $48.70 a barrel, down 12 cents, or 0.3 percent. |
August, 24, 14:20:00
OIL MARKET IS RIGHTAs of July 2017, the OPEC and participating non-OPEC producing countries achieved an impressive conformity level of 94 per cent. This is a demonstration of the commitment of participating producing countries to continue their cooperation towards the rebalancing of the market. The JMMC expressed great satisfaction with the results and steady progress made towards full conformity of the production adjustments, and encouraged all participating countries to achieve full conformity, for the benefit of producers and consumers alike. The JMMC also welcomed the participation of the UAE at the recent JTC meeting, where the UAE reiterated its commitment to adhere to its production adjustments for the remaining period of the Declaration of Cooperation. |
August, 17, 15:25:00
OIL PRICE: NOT ABOVE $51Brent crude LCOc1 was unchanged at $50.27 a barrel by 0845 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was 5 cents lower at $46.73. |
August, 17, 15:20:00
U.S. OIL INVENTORIES DOWN 9MBUS commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 8.9 million bbl for the week ended Aug. 11 compared with the previous week, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly oil and products inventory report. |
August, 14, 14:35:00
OIL PRICES: $51 - $52North Sea Brent crude oil spot prices averaged $48 per barrel (b) in July, $2/b higher than the June average and almost $4/b higher than in July 2016. EIA forecasts Brent spot prices to average $51/b in 2017 and $52/b in 2018. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil prices are forecast to average $2/b less than Brent prices in both 2017 and 2018. |
August, 14, 14:30:00
OIL STOCKS DOWN BY 500 TBDGlobal oil stocks fell by 500,000 b/d and preliminary data for July, particularly in the US where stocks fell by 790,000 b/d, is supportive of rebalancing supplies with demand, according to the most recent Oil Market Report from the International Energy Agency. |
