BP’s slide and the drop in crude prices complicates a bet by Elliott Investment Management, which has bought up around 5% of BP. The activist investor has been ramping up pressure on BP after its new strategy fell short of its expectations, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The ink is barely dry on Trump’s 10% tariff on Canadian energy, and already, fuel prices are bracing for impact. As GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan puts it, “The real-world impact of tariffs won’t be to shift refining patterns, instead, it will be to add costs throughout the system.” Translation? Expect to shell out more at the pump, GasBuddy predicts.
Chevron has been exporting some 240,000 barrels of Venezuelan crude to the United States daily thanks to the waiver. The company also had big plans for its Venezuelan operations, aiming to boost exports from just one of them, Petropiar, by as much as 50% this year, to a total of 143,000 barrels daily.
Trafigura Group’s head of oil trading Ben Luckock has named U.S. foreign policy towards Iran as the biggest upside risk to crude prices in an otherwise well-supplied market.
Oil is set to close out the week with a gain, marking the first upside for crude since mid-January.
Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a build of 4.6 million barrels during the week ending February 14, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The outgoing Biden administration in December then sought to ratchet sanctions on Russian oil, including sanctions on Surgutneftgas and Gazprom Neft, two Russian oil firms which together account for 25% of exports. Middlemen who supply Russian oil have also been targeted.
A statement by the Russian government said that flows along the Caspian Pipeline Consortium infrastructure had dropped by between 30% and 40% on Tuesday following the terrorist attack that involved seven unmanned aerial vehicles, per a statement by the CPC. Reuters said the attack was carried out by Ukrainian forces.
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.
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.