Oil prices slumped by another 3% early on Wednesday, extending the 4% losses from Tuesday after manufacturing data from China disappointed and the U.S. dollar strengthened.
Iraq is going full throttle in its oil and gas development and has awarded a project to a Chinese firm to build its largest crude oil depot for export with a capacity of around 3.2 million barrels, Zawya reported, citing Iraqi officials
The last week or so has seen a flurry of major cooperation agreements – including in energy, security, and logistics – between various permutations of Iran, Iraq, Russia, and China.
SINGAPORE/BEIJING – China’s crude oil imports from Russia rose 8.6% in April from a year earlier, as larger private refiners also embarked on purchases of the discounted fuel.
Given the high stakes geopolitical game in which the world finds itself following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, it would be naïve to be believe that anything as high-profile as Iran’s seizure of oil tankers in and around its coastal waters occurred in political isolation.
As many as 125 supertankers were traveling to China at the end of April, carrying the biggest volumes of oil to the world’s top crude buyer in more than two years, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
China’s factory activity dipped in April, the private Caixin purchasing managers’ index has confirmed.
In this week’s newsletter, we will take a quick look at some of the critical figures and data in the energy markets this week.
Oil prices were steady on Tuesday as investors weighed strong holiday travel in China that could boost fuel demand against the prospect of rising interest rates elsewhere, slowing economic growth.
China’s economy grew by 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the first quarter (Q1), a massive improvement on the previous quarter’s 0.6 percent growth. Also positive from the economic perspective was that this was the third straight quarterly expansion after China began to ease COVID-19 restrictions in the second half of last year.