US crude oil inventories for the week ended Mar. 15, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased 9.6 million bbl from the previous week, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed.

U.S. FRB - Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. In support of these goals, the Committee decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 percent.

Electricity generation from U.S. nuclear power plants totaled 807.1 million megawatthours (MWh) in 2018, slightly more than the previous peak of 807.0 million MWh in 2010, based on preliminary annual data. Although several nuclear power plants have closed since 2010, a combination of added capacity through uprates and shorter refueling and maintenance cycles allowed the remaining nuclear power plants to produce more electricity. In the near future, however, EIA expects that U.S. nuclear power output will decline.

IEA - The United States will drive global oil supply growth over the next five years thanks to the remarkable strength of its shale industry, triggering a rapid transformation of world oil markets

U.S. EIA - Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to increase 85,000 b/d month-over-month in April from 8,507 to 8,592 thousand barrels/day , gas production to increase 883 million cubic feet/day from 78,137 to 79,020 million cubic feet/day .

IEA - Until recently, Venezuela’s oil production had stabilised at around 1.2 mb/d. During the past week, industry operations were seriously disrupted and ongoing losses on a significant scale could present a challenge to the market.

Since then, U.S. continued federal efforts to curb retirements of coal and nuclear units for resilience and national security have met with much resistance and found little success.

EIA - Renewable generation provided a new record of 742 million megawatthours (MWh) of electricity in 2018, nearly double the 382 million MWh produced in 2008. Renewables provided 17.6% of electricity generation in the United States in 2018.

U.S. DT - the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated six Russian individuals and eight entities in response to Russia’s continued and ongoing aggression in Ukraine.

U.S. DT - During 2018, real GDP increased by 3.1 percent measured from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018.