Oil Prices
World’s Top Oil Trader Is Now A Used Car Salesman
Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil-trading firm, has been startled by the prospects of peak oil demand as it must diversify operations today to survive the decade. Vitol recently formed a new business venture called Vava Cars, aiming to become “the most trusted car transaction platform in the world,” the company states on its website. …
WTI Holds Losses As US Distillates Stocks Reach 38-Year Highs
Oil prices are lower overnight after a surprisingly large crude inventory build reported by API. The energy complex was not helped by comments by President Trump that the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. will probably worsen before improving. “Everything seemed to rise in the commodity world yesterday as part of the reflation trade,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS…
“We Are Moving Into The End-Game”: 27 Tankers Anchored Off California, Hundreds Off Singapore As Oil Industry Shuts Down
Back in the late fall of 2014, when Saudi Arabia broke up OPEC for the first time and unleashed a torrent of crude oil on the world despite the protests of its fellow cartel members, oil prices crashed as a result of what then seemed to be a “calculated” move by Riyadh which hoped to…
A Shift In The Global Financial Order Is Upon Us
The collapse in bond yields, exacerbated by the crash in oil prices, marks an end to the era of trust in central banks… OPEC+: A 24-Hour View Coronavirus. That will be the first and last time this column mentions that word. Despite the weekend’s many developments in the epidemic, there is a new issue to drive…
No Financing And No Demand: Chinese Refiners Run Into Trouble
International banks are suspending credit lines for some independent oil refiners worried about the growing risk of defaults across industries because of the coronavirus epidemic, Reuters reports, citing industry sources… According to the sources, at least three private refiners, or teapots, have had credit lines to the tune of $600 million suspended by banks including French…
“Tankers, Tankers. Everywhere!” – Virus Causes Historic’ Traffic Jam’ Across Asian Supply Lines
Covid-19’s effect on global energy markets has been disastrous. OPEC slashed its oil demand forecast last week, and Goldman Sachs doubled down on its bearish oil take and has cut its oil price target by $10 to $53 for the year, as a result of a “demand shock” that is set to collapse Chinese oil consumption by 20%, or…
Coronavirus Triggers “Biggest Shock” To Oil Markets Since Lehman Crisis
Update: The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard warned that the collapse in Chinese oil consumption is “the biggest shock to oil markets since the Lehman crisis.” Evans-Pritchard said the plunge in consumption could be between three to four million barrels per day, adding that this amount is twice UK’s North Sea oil output. We noted earlier (see below), OPEC+ couldn’t come to…
Oil Prices Jump as the US, Iran Trade Blows
Experts believe that the market will self-correct as it did on multiple occasions in 2019 despite Mideast tensions US President Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani has sent shockwaves not only throughout the Middle East but also across global markets.The price of international benchmark Brent crude topped $70 per barrel on Monday, a…
The Next Ten Years In Oil Markets
An eventful 2019 wraps up a decade of turmoil in oil markets, in which Brent Crude prices fluctuated from as high as US$125 a barrel in 2012 to as low as US$30 per barrel in January 2016. Geopolitical turmoil, economic growth, soaring U.S. shale production, and OPEC’s various policies to try to set the trends in oil prices marked…
Dalio & Tudor Jones Warn: “We Will Kill Each Other” If Our Broken Economic System Isn’t Fixed
Two hedge fund icons – Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones – joined Yahoo Finance for the 2nd annual Greenwich Investment Forum earlier this month. Speaking directly after Connecticut Gov. New Lamont, with whom Dalio is working to bolster Connecticut’s schools via a $100 million gift – the largest charitable gift the state has ever…