Demand Crash Led To Biggest Monthly Surge in US Oil Inventories Since 1920

The oil demand crash in April, when most of America was under stay-at-home orders, resulted in the biggest monthly inventory jump in U.S. commercial crude oil inventories in data going back to 1920, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Thursday. In April, U.S. commercial crude stocks soared by 46.7 million barrels, or by 10 percent, as demand for refined petroleum products slumped to the lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to EIA estimates. Refinery utilization rate was at 70 percent in April—the lowest utilization rate in monthly…

Read More

China Inks Military Deal With Iran Under Secretive 25-Year Plan

Last August, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Zarif, paid a visit to his China counterpart, Wang Li, to present a roadmap on a comprehensive 25-year China-Iran strategic partnership that built upon a previous agreement signed in 2016. Many of the key specifics of the updated agreement were not released to the public at the time but were uncovered by OilPrice.com at the time. Last week, at a meeting in Gilan province, former Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alluded to some of the secret parts of this deal in public for the first…

Read More

Siemens Gamesa launches SG 3.4-145 wind turbine in India

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy announced that it has launched its new turbine, the SG 3.4-145, into India’s onshore wind market. Siemens said that the new wind turbine is specifically designed and optimized for wind conditions in India and aims to deliver the lowest possible Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) with high reliability. The new wind turbine is an extension of the Siemens Gamesa 3.X platform, which the company will be manufacturing starting in early 2021. The new model has been upgraded with the 145-meter rotor of the Siemens Gamesa 4.X…

Read More

Russia-led Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline Could Be Completed Soon

A Russian vessel capable of completing the pipelaying for the Gazprom-led Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project left a German port on Wednesday and entered Danish waters where the last section of the controversial pipeline has yet to be completed. According to vessel-tracking data from Refinitiv Eikon cited by Reuters, Russian ship Fortuna, sailing under a Russian flag, departed from the Mukran port in Germany on the Baltic Sea and moved into Danish territorial waters. The move comes several days after the Danish Energy Agency allowed Nord Stream 2…

Read More

Gulf Gas: Clouds of Confusion

Individual GCC states have settled on convoluted ways of distributing natural gas due to a lack of cooperationThe states bordering the Gulf are caught in a cat’s cradle of geopolitical complexity. This is as much the case within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as it is between certain GCC states and Iran. The muddle is clearly illustrated by the minimal progress among the region’s governments towards coordinating the development of natural gas resources and gas distribution. At the launch of The Future of Gas in the Gulf in London at…

Read More