Oil & Gas

OPEC+ likely to pause output hikes after next meeting, says Goldman Sachs

The OPEC+ oil producer alliance is likely to make its next hike in collective output its last for a while, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
With the producer club nearing the end of a first phase of jumbo output hikes, the market’s attention is turning to what will come after. The organization and its allies have been voluntarily holding back a second, smaller tranche of supply, propping up oil prices. Focus is now on the group’s intentions for those barrels.

EU Faces 250-Billion Euro Gap in Grid Investment Plans

“Without new approaches to financing and capital efficiency, TSOs may fall short of delivering the infrastructure needed to meet Europe’s climate and reliability goals,” the company said, identifying three problematic areas. These are, first, limitations to TSOs capacity to raise money via debt or equity; second, a tension between efforts to keep electricity costs low for consumers while ensuring a certain level of returns to investors in grid operators; and third, different expectations of these grid operators from governments, on the one hand, and investors, on the other.

OPEC Bans Five Media Outlets From Vienna Meeting

This is not the first ban for three of the five media outlets. Back in 2023, OPEC refused to accredit journalists from Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal for a ministerial meeting of OPEC+. The Financial Times suggested at the time it was because those publications sought to break a story before meetings were fully concluded, which could affect oil prices and Saudi Arabia’s top oil man Abdulaziz bin Salman wanted to avoid such volatility as the kingdom tried to push prices higher.

Saudi Aramco in U.S. Supply Talks with Commonwealth LNG

This marks the strongest signal yet that Aramco intends to take a material position in the U.S. LNG sector. It also follows earlier exploratory efforts with projects such as Delfin LNG and Energy Transfer’s Lake Charles facility, though those discussions have not resulted in formal agreements. The Commonwealth negotiations, if concluded, would give Aramco a direct channel into the fast-growing U.S. Gulf Coast export market, amid rising demand in Asia and Europe.