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. …

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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…

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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…

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The Danger Of Deeper OPEC+ Cuts

OPEC+ agreed to cut production by 500,000 bpd, sending oil prices higher on Friday. During mid-day trading, WTI was just shy of $60 per barrel, and Brent moved closer to $65. In total, the 1.2 million-barrel-per-day (mb/d) cuts from OPEC will rise to 1.7 mb/d. Those details had been reported on Thursday. But when OPEC+ made it…

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U.S. Shale Braces For Brutal Earnings Season

A lot of big names will report third-quarter earnings this week, and the results are expected to be worse than the same period in 2018. The timing comes as the shale sector is facing somewhat of a reckoning. After years of price volatility – with more downs than ups – oil prices have failed to return…

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Waking into Our New Volatile Age of Oil Prices

The Bible has a lot to say on the subject of injustice. We know that God is in favor of justice; we know that He is against injustice, even in the most basic terms. The writer of Proverbs mentions this: “The LORD detests differing weights, / and dishonest scales do not please him” (Proverbs 20:23).…

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Persian Gulf Conflict Could Send Oil Beyond $325

There is no doubt that world war will be a part of the future. Christ plainly taught that there would be war prior to His return (Matthew 24:4-31). Some hold that He spoke generally of the Church age in verses 4-14 and spoke of the tribulation period starting at its mid-point in verses 15-31. Others…

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