West Texas Intermediate advanced 2.8% to settle near $64 a barrel, bringing its recovery from this year’s lowest closing price to more than 11%. Trump told an audience in Saudi Arabia that the US will exert maximum pressure on Iranian energy exports if an agreement isn’t reached. The US State Department said earlier that it’s sanctioning a network that helps ship Iranian crude oil to China.
Woodside bought the former Driftwood LNG project as part of its acquisition of Tellurian for $1.2 billion last year. The deal “adds a scalable US LNG development opportunity to our existing approximately 10 Mtpa of equity LNG in Australia,” Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said at the time. Then, this year, reports emerged that Woodside was looking for partners in the projects, seeking to sell up to 50% of the ownership.
The Prime Minister did not elaborate on what specific kind of pipeline he would seek to create consensus for, he has previously said that “We have to choose a few projects, a few big projects, not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines. We’ll see,” in comments on the Liberals’ campaign for turning Canada into an energy superpower by combining both oil and gas, and alternative energy sources, of which, the campaign claims, Canada has unlimited resources.
Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed 500,000 barrels to 399.6 million barrels in the week ending May 9. Inventory levels in the SPR are hundreds of millions shy of the levels in inventory prior to the SPR withdrawal that took place under the Biden Administration.
Petrobras is sticking with its plans to expand oil production, along with other international oil majors including Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Shell Plc, despite a decline in crude prices during April and a decision by OPEC+ to crank up output in June. Unlike US shale operators who need more than $60 a barrel to cover costs, Petrobras’s breakeven price is $28 a barrel.
The truce between the world’s two largest economies brought some temporary relief to commodity markets roiled by tariffs that dented the outlook for global economic growth in recent weeks. Oil watchers have slashed demand forecasts, and the trade war already was showing signs of reducing the volume of goods arriving in the US.
Norway is currently Europe’s largest single supplier of natural gas and also the largest producer of oil in the West. The country, which also sports some of the highest low-carbon generation capacity thanks to its abundant water resources, plans to maintain this status by investing more in both oil and gas despite net-zero plans.
Naturally, the news sparked a strong reaction from the climate tech world. “While American businesses are demanding more energy to compete against our adversaries, and consumers are turning to clean energy to hedge against rising electricity prices, these proposals will undermine our nation’s efforts to achieve President Trump’s American energy dominance agenda,” the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a statement.
Goldman Sachs analysts have reportedly suggested that OPEC+ is likely to pause further oil production increases due to deteriorating global economic conditions. Goldman reportedly anticipates that OPEC+ will make a “final” decision in July to raise daily output by 411,000 barrels, but actual economic data may prompt a reassessment, according to @FirstSquawk, and lead to a halt beyond that.
“U.S. oil production growth has been a dominant feature in the oil market since 2022,” said Burkhard. “A price-driven decline in U.S. production would be a pivot point for the oil market—and set conditions for a potential price recovery. But much will depend on the severity of an economic slowdown and the impact on demand growth beyond 2025.”