The Macquarie strategists highlighted in the report that, last week, the EIA “reported builds in commercial crude (+4.1 million barrels) and at Cushing (+0.9 million barrels), with mixed product stats (gasoline -3.0 million barrels, distillate +0.1 million barrels, jet +0.9 million barrels)”.
It would be the fourth time the Saudi Arabia-led producer group has delayed plans to revive output. That’s eased worries about a supply surplus developing this year. The International Energy Agency is calling for an overhang of 450,000 barrels a day and, in the US, inventories are sitting at a three-month high while one measure of market tightness is flashing signs of oversupply.
TotalEnergies SE and Air Liquide SA plan a €600 million ($628 million) joint venture to produce green hydrogen for the French oil giant’s refinery in the Netherlands, along with a supply deal for its petrochemical plant in Belgium.
The three companies said in a joint media release that under the Framework for Action agreement, Masdar and TotalEnergies will strengthen their cooperation to provide reliable and sustainable electricity to local communities in Africa and support its long-term energy systems transformation, and jointly develop new clean energy opportunities in Southeast Asia.
An increase in ship-to-ship transfers, plus the emergence of alternative receiving terminals, led to the jump, according to traders who participate in the market and asked not to be identified because the matter is sensitive.
Galp said that its investments during the fourth quarter reached EUR 500 million ($522.3 million), mainly channeled toward the execution of upstream projects, such as the Namibia appraisal campaign and Bacalhau. The company also said it continued pursuing industrial low-carbon projects.
Germany’s year-ahead power futures prices fell this week to the lowest level since the beginning of the year amid falling European natural gas prices as talks on a peace deal in Ukraine began.
Europe’s diesel markets are flashing signs of tightness, with near-term diesel contracts on Tuesday hitting the steepest backwardation–a situation where futures contracts for prompt delivery are more expensive than those further down the curve–since March. Backwardation is often interpreted as a sign of limited supply, with traders now willing to pay a premium for fuel that’s available sooner.
The Group of Seven is considering collectively tightening an oil price cap on Russian petroleum in an effort to cut Moscow’s oil revenues as the war in Ukraine rages on, Bloomberg has revealed. A draft statement seen by Bloomberg shows that these nations could task their finance ministers to collectively redraw the price limit–currently set at $60 a barrel for Russian crude.
The European Union, ever the conflicted protagonist in its own energy saga, is gearing up to throw its weight around in the global LNG market—again. A leaked draft from the European Commission suggests Brussels will “immediately engage” with LNG suppliers to stabilize energy prices, all while still pretending it’s on track to kiss fossil fuels goodbye by 2050. The cognitive dissonance is almost admirable.