The U.S. and global oil and gas sector is currently enjoying a third year of relatively high energy prices with oil demand on a steady growth trajectory. WTI crude has traded above $70 per barrel for the better part of the past 12 months, well above the $54 per barrel average breakeven price for U.S. shale basins. However, U.S. oil majors are not allowing high energy prices to lull them into a false sense of security, rankled by the memories of the historic oil price crash of 2020. Oil majors are now hedging their bets by targeting new oilfields that can be profitable even at $30 per barrel oil, reflecting executives’ belief that high prices are anything but guaranteed.
Total receipts from liftings from Ghana’s oil fields amounted to $521.9 million in the second half of 2023.
This is however lower than the $696.815 million secured in the same period of 2022.
No reasons have yet been attributed to the drop in proceeds.
Meanwhile, the sad development comes particularly at a time when the government is in dire need of funds to shore up its domestic revenue in the wake of the closure of the international capital markets to the country.
Growing U.S. oil inventories sent crude oil prices sliding by a dollar a barrel in Wednesday’s trading. Investors fear the growing crude inventory could result in less demand for oil in the nation.
West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, dropped $1.23 or 1.6% to settle at $76.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil majors are targeting new oilfields that can be profitable even if oil prices fall to about $30 per barrel, using a third year of rising demand to reshape portfolios amid uncertainty over the industry’s future.
A push to replenish depleted oil stocks notably in China, the United States and Europe could buoy demand and prices in coming months, analysts and traders said, as tensions in the Middle East threaten key shipping lanes.
A Texas company has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the federal government and the state of New Mexico to address air pollution concerns in the largest oil and gas producing region in the United States.
American Petroleum Institute figures show surprise increase in inventory while, investors are reining in expectations for US rate cuts
The inertia of oil prices during the Red Sea oil crisis has made oil traders complacent.
Fears of an escalation of the Israel-Hamas war have subsided amid talks about a ceasefire.
The rerouting of oil tankers directly increases oil demand—by around 200,000 bpd so far.
Oil prices fell in early Asian trade on Monday after Israel said it had “concluded” a series of strikes in southern Gaza, slightly easing concerns about supply from the Middle East.
According to StanChart, the global oil surplus we are currently witnessing is due to seasonal weakness in the month of January.
StanChart notes that there’s been a January inventory draw in only three years since 2004, with the first month of the year averaging a build of 1.2 million barrels per day.
StanChart has predicted that this surplus is transitory and will flip into a 1.6 mb/d deficit in February.