Category: Highlights

Oil Gains On Crossed Economic Wires

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Continued volatility has seen oil prices gain 1% on Wednesday, as the market attempts to decipher the latest demand growth, US crude inventory data, inflation indications and the impact of China’s COVID lockdowns. As of 3:33 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading up $0.53, at $93.73, for a 0.60% gain on the day. WTI was trading up $0.83, at $88.14, for a 0.95% gain on the day. Oil prices appear to be reacting, in part, to Wednesday’s release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Producer Price…

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The Energy Market’s Next Crisis: Oil Tanker Shortages

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In the new era of energy shortages, one aspect of the situation has tended to get overlooked: the transport of energy. Demand for tankers has been on the rise since the European Union slapped sanctions on Russia in the spring, and this trend is only going to intensify in the coming months as the EU embargo on Russian oil and fuels enters into effect. Bloomberg reported this week that shipping companies were scrambling to get their hands on as many ice-class tankers as they could ahead of the embargo, which comes into…

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China And Russia Move To Disrupt The Dollar’s Dominance In Oil Markets

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The long-mooted prospect of the end of the U.S. dollar’s hegemony in the global oil and gas markets took another step towards realisation last week with the announcement that Russian and Chinese hydrocarbons giants, Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have agreed to switch payments for gas supplies to rubles (RUB) and renminbi (RMB) instead of dollars. In the first phase of the new payments system, this will apply to Russian gas supplies to China via the ‘Power of Siberia’ eastern pipeline route that totals at minimum 38 billion…

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Russia’s Energy Blackmail Is Backfiring

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Putin

In early September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin spelled out his intention to punish Europe for resisting Russia’s assault on the world order and supporting Ukraine louder and clearer than ever before. Speaking at the high session of an economic forum in Vladivostok, Russia, Putin asserted that the confrontation in Ukraine has reinforced Russia’s sovereignty, so in reality, it stands to gain from deepened global polarization and has suffered no significant losses (Nezavisimaya gazeta, September 7). He described the proposal to enforce a price cap on oil and gas exported…

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Oil Prices Inch Lower On Hot Inflation Data

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Despite the drop-off in European spot prices, the cost of natural gas remains prohibitively high, paving the way for global gas-to-oil switching in the power generation industry. Inflation is rearing its ugly head again, with U.S. consumer prices gaining 0.1% month-on-month in August, just when the analytical community and US Federal Reserve alike expected a month-on-month dip. This will only bring grist to the mill of the Fed, meeting next week to discuss further interest rate hikes. With ICE Brent dropping to $93 per barrel after several consecutive daily increases,…

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