West Texas Intermediate ended the session fractionally lower near $71 a barrel after Trump directed his administration to propose new levies on a country-by-country basis that could take weeks or months to complete. The delay reduced concerns that the levies will hamper demand and sparked speculation Trump may not follow through on the measures.
The German economy ministry spokesperson said the government is not a party to the contract and isn’t involved in negotiations. Rosneft Deutschland declined to comment, and the Qatari wealth fund also declined to comment.
Grupo Vanti, the Andean nation’s biggest natural gas distributor, announced that starting this month prices in cities like Bogotá and Medellín will rise as much as 36 percent as a shortage of the fuel forces Colombia to rely on imports. Industry group Naturgas also confirmed that other companies are also charging more given shipments of liquefied natural gas are two or three times more expensive than domestic supplies.
Hamas on Thursday recommitted to the ceasefire with Israel and said it would free another three hostages as planned on Saturday, easing concerns that the truce was close to collapse.
The ceasefire, which was signed a day before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, was threatened to unravel earlier this week, after both sides accused the other of violating the terms of the truce.
The Biden Administration on January 10 imposed the most severe sanctions on Russia’s oil yet, designating two major Russian oil companies, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as 183 vessels, dozens of oil traders, oilfield service providers, insurance companies, and energy officials.
“We have not received any new offers for the March window (delivery). Traders are asking us to wait. We are waiting to get offers,” Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta told Reuters. “We are not expecting the similar number of cargoes that we used to get in the months of December and January,” he added.
Crude oil prices were on course to end the week with a gain, snapping a three-week string of losses as Trump signaled reciprocal tariffs for U.S. trade partners will not come into effect until at least April.
“The surge is primarily driven by robust growing use of electricity for industrial production, increased demand for air conditioning, accelerating electrification, led by the transport sector, and the rapid expansion of data centres,” the International Energy Agency said.
President John Mahama has reassigned the former Member of Parliament for Bongo, Edward Abambire Bawa as the Group Chief Executive Officer of GOIL.
The move higher was driven by a rapid tightening in inventories due to colder weather, lower wind power generation due to low wind speeds and the termination of Russian gas imports via Ukraine.