Demand worries outweighed supply concerns this week to push down oil prices, reinforced by heightened expectations of more U.S. rate hikes that lifted the greenback.
Previously, we reported that energy agencies have been growing more bearish with their forecasts on oil demand growth with four experts including IEA and OPEC Secretariat giving divergent views. Alarmingly, the normally bullish U.S.-based Energy Information Agency (EIA) has cut its forecast in each of the past nine months.
The continuous shift in oil trade flows following the EU embargo on Russian exports is a huge win for the crude from Western Europe’s largest oilfield offshore Norway.
Crude oil prices inched lower today, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 4.6 million barrels for the week to April 14.
Oil prices were down in Asian trade on Thursday as the U.S. dollar strengthened on rate-hike expectations and after recent economic data from the U.S. and China did not do enough to encourage expectations that demand will improve.
Oil drifted lower on Wednesday as the market weighed potential interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve that could slow growth and dampen oil consumption, offsetting falling US inventories and strong Chinese economic data.
Environmentalists are up in arms over apparent slack added to the Group of Seven’s energy and environmental goals, after ministers decided that the ‘war in Ukraine and its effects on oil and gas’ warrant breaking what are supposed to be ‘firm commitments’ that climate advocates say are necessary to limit global warming.
It should be an advance considered a breakthrough in computational chemistry research.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, traditional Middle Eastern allies of the United States, are not shying away from importing, storing, trading, or re-exporting Russian fuels.
A report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air suggests that a loophole in the G7 price cap is undermining sanctions on Russian oil.