Sanctions have become the main news in 2025 so far, with this week seeing a tightening of US sanctions against China as the Pentagon targeted state-backed oil and shipping firms. Rumors are circulating that the outgoing Biden administration will slap further sanctions on Russia and Iran, inadvertently lifting oil prices before Donald Trump takes office on January 20. For the time being, ICE Brent futures are hovering around $77 per barrel, with a potential spike above $80 per barrel becoming an increasingly likely outcome.
Doubts about oil demand growth will persist beyond 2024, and fears of a price slump will be there to keep them company. That’s according to some recent predictions about the state of the oil market in 2025, which see demand growing, China directing the market, and OPEC still likely to unwind its production cuts.
Oil rose as strong US crude exports signaled firm global demand before paring gains after the Federal Reserve reduced the number of rate cuts it expects to make next year.
According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest short term energy outlook (STEO), which was released recently, the U.S. will produce an average of 13.53 million barrels per day of crude oil, including lease condensate, in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States stayed the same this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, after rising in the week prior.
Natural gas prices are drifting lower after failing to break out above a key technical level at $3.40 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last week.
Oil rose the most in more than two weeks as the US imposed more sanctions targeting Iranian crude and OPEC+ made progress on a deal to keep output off the market.
The non-binding agreement would see ExxonMobil supply lithium carbonate to the South Korean-owned cathode plant in Clarksville, Tennessee, which aims to manufacture cathodes for electric vehicle batteries.
hese massive fields offered huge additional oil and associated gas feedstock to add to that which could come from Shell’s 44 percent stake in the US$17 billion 25-year Basrah Gas Company project. Shell’s design plans for Nebras were for a project that could produce at least 1.8 million metric tonnes per year (mtpa) of various petrochemicals.
The future of the United States natural gas sector hangs in the balance as a cluster of competing variables cloud the crystal ball. The upcoming regime change in the United States is certain to significantly reshape domestic production, consumption, and export trends but myriad global factors make exact projections tricky.