he National Energy System Operator (NESO) flagged the EGL1 as essential to the UK’s 20030 clean energy goals, as it will transport electricity generated from North Sea wind farms from East Lothian to Country Durham.
Steep gasoline and diesel inventory draws in the United States have helped offset the overwhelmingly bearish sentiment in the oil market, although it wasn’t enough to halt the decline in oil prices. With China posting its seventh successive month of refinery run declines and Jerome Powell cooling down expectations on U.S. interest rate cuts, Brent below $72 per barrel feels justified.
After years of speculation surrounding the former Dutch colony’s petroleum potential, with discoveries in neighboring offshore Guyana pointing to the deeply impoverished country possessing billions of barrels of crude, the first oil recently took a big step closer.
The options for non-VIPs aren’t plentiful. Taking public transport is time-consuming and tight security around the venue means that participants have to walk a half-hour or more before they stand a chance of finding a taxi.
Crude oil prices fell 2.5% this week due to softening demand projections, a strong U.S. dollar, and rising supply expectations. Amid global economic uncertainty, reports from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and OPEC are collectively highlighting a bearish outlook, particularly as non-OPEC supply growth appears likely to outpace sluggish demand.
The only silver lining is that EU gas storage is pretty much full for the winter, and meteorologists are predicting a mild one.
In the latest edition of the Numbers Report, we will take a look at some of the most interesting figures put out this week in the energy and metals sectors. Each week we’ll dig into some data and provide a bit of explanation on what drives the numbers.
Let’s take a look.
The number of oil rigs fell by one this week to 478—down by 22 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs also fell by a single rig, landing at 101, a loss of 13 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs rose by 1 to 5.
The U.S. continues to uphold sanctions on several countries including Iran, Venezuela, and Russia. While the Biden administration eased sanctions on Venezuelan energy at the beginning of the year, and Iran has been able to increasingly circumvent sanctions, there was no clear path to bringing the sanctions to a total stop.
The main reason for that seems to be the perception of relative weakness in the Chinese economy, although, as I have said over the last few weeks, the pro-Russia and “drill baby, drill” policy proposals from Donald Trump during the campaign suggest quite significant increases in the supply of crude, which have at least put a ceiling on WTI.