OilPrice

Russia And Iran Invest $20 Billion In New Trade Route To Avoid Sanctions

Russia and Iran, which have grown increasingly closer in recent years, have joined forces to evade the Western sanctions on their exports by constructing a new waterway-railway route from Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine to the southernmost ports in the Islamic Republic. Russia and Iran, united by their increasingly closer military ties and the fact that they are both pariahs in international trade due to the Western sanctions, are now looking to expand their trade ties with Asia and are expanding canals on navigable rivers and building railroads…

Russia And Iran Invest $20 Billion In New Trade Route To Avoid Sanctions

Russia and Iran, which have grown increasingly closer in recent years, have joined forces to evade the Western sanctions on their exports by constructing a new waterway-railway route from Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine to the southernmost ports in the Islamic Republic. Russia and Iran, united by their increasingly closer military ties and the fact that they are both pariahs in international trade due to the Western sanctions, are now looking to expand their trade ties with Asia and are expanding canals on navigable rivers and building railroads…

Upside Risks For Oil Are Growing

Recession fears have left oil prices lingering at a one-year-low with slim trades ahead of the holidays, but the upside momentum for oil prices next year may have already started. Hedge funds and other money managers have slowed the sell-off in the two most important crude futures contracts following an exodus in November. In the week to December 13, money managers also cut their combined bullish Brent and WTI bets to the lowest level since April 2020, according to estimates by Saxo Bank’s Head of Commodity Strategy Ole Hansen, based on the…

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Slams Forecasters For Politicizing Data

Politicizing statistics and forecasts and using them to discredit OPEC and the OPEC+ group’s oil production decisions sows confusion on the market and leads to unnecessary volatility, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has said. In an interview with the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the minister gave an example with the forecast from early in the Russian invasion of Ukraine that the shunning of Russian oil would result in massive losses in supply of around 3 million barrels per day (bpd).   That was the forecast from the International…

Yergin: Oil Prices Could Break $120 If China Overcomes Covid

Crude oil prices could reach $121 per barrel when China’s economy reopens following a string of Covid-related restrictions, Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global, told CNBC. “If China gets over Covid... then you add a lot of demand to the market,” Yergin explained, also saying that S&P Global’s base case for oil prices remains $90 per barrel of Brent, although there is a downside potential for a slump to $70 per barrel. The cheaper-oil scenario would play out in case of a global recession, according to the energy…

Exxon Overtakes Tesla In Market Cap

Exxon’s market capitalization rose above that of Tesla for the first time in two years as investors’ appetite for stable returns in energy stocks prevailed over their attachment to the tech and EV sectors. Bloomberg reports that since the start of the year the shares of the U.S. oil supermajor have gained 75 percent, suggesting Exxon might record its best annual stock performance in its history. In the meantime, Tesla’s stock has slumped by about 60 percent and is about to book its worst annual performance. Energy stocks as a…

Will Buffett Bet Big On Oil Again In 2023?

For decades, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B) Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett maintained a pretty conservative approach to investing, favoring retail and banking stocks while giving a wide berth to more volatile sectors such as tech and energy. In fact, big American banks have been Warren Buffett's favorite investment because they are part of the infrastructure of the country, a nation he continually bets on.  As recently as late 2019, Berkshire had large stakes in four of the five biggest U.S. banks, with Wells Fargo remaining Buffett’s…

Will Iraq Finally Start To Use Its Natural Gas Reserves?

It has long been a point of extreme contention with the U.S. that Iraq continues to rely on neighbouring – sanctioned – Iran for around 40 percent of its power supplies, constituted in large part by imports of gas. Although every year when, whoever is prime minister of Iraq at that point goes to Washington to ask for money, promises that this reliance on Iran will end soon, it never does. The solution, though, is simple: Iraq stops burning away all the gas that it releases in the process of extracting oil from its wells and uses this…

The Global Economy Is Finally Realizing That Fossil Fuels Are Finite

The problem is hitting limits in the extraction of fossil fuels We know that historically, many economies around the world have collapsed. We also know that there is a physics reason why this happens. Growing economies require a growing supply of energy to keep up with a growing population. At some point, the energy supply and other resource needs cannot grow rapidly enough to keep up with population growth. When this happens, economies tend to collapse. In their book Secular Cycles, researchers Peter Turchin and Sergey Nefedov found…

Russia Strengthens Military Ties With Iran

The fact that Iran has been transferring drones to Russia and is even helping manufacture them within Russia is well known by now (Ibtimes.com, November 21). But this bilateral cooperation has not stopped at drones but has expanded to encompass regular arms deliveries by Tehran to Moscow, the transfer of Russian weapons to Iran and a growing agenda of deepened security cooperation. In other words, a genuine entente is taking shape before our eyes. Indeed, Russia has requested a second large transfer of Iranian drones as well as surface-to-surface…

WTI Pops After API Reports Crude Inventory Draw

After unexpectedly rising 7.8 billion barrels last week, ending a four-week streak of drawdowns, crude oil inventories this week went back to draws, with the American Petroleum Institute (API) reporting inventories down by 3.069 barrels.  Analysts anticipated a 0.167 million barrel draw.  Meanwhile, crude stored in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves sunk by 211 million barrels, now at its lowest level since January 1984. In the week ending December 9, the Department of Energy released 4.7 million barrels from the Strategic…

“Living Solar Cell” Could Pave The Way For Future Sustainable Energy Tech

Scientists at Technion in Israel figured out how to harvest the electrons plants produce and extract the current. By collecting electrons naturally transported within plant cells, the scientists can generate electricity as part of a ‘green,’ biological solar cell. Now the research team has used a succulent plant to create a living ‘bio-solar cell’ that runs on the solar powered photosynthesis. The team reported their study in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Though plants can serve as a source of food, oxygen and…

Long Term Outlook For Precious Metals Looks Blurred Despite Strong End Of 2022

  Via AG Metal Miner The Global Precious Metals MMI (Monthly MetalMiner Index) stayed within a sideways range this past month. However, precious metal prices did rise by a modest 1.13%. As the US dollar dropped in value over recent weeks, precious metal indexes responded accordingly. Month-over-month, gold, platinum, and palladium all saw a brief rally between Nov 3 – 10. However, they soon began to cool off again. Silver reacted similarly, but managed to continue its rally a bit longer than the other three. Wrapping up 2022, it’s…

Putin’s Energy Weapon Is Losing Strength

Bold and unpredictable maneuvers are supposed to be the trademark political style of Russian President Vladimir Putin; last week, however, he surprised observers of various persuasions not with a proactive move but with an unusual act of avoidance. Putin’s annual marathon end-of-the-year press conference has been canceled, as has the traditional “direct line” with carefully trained audiences, and his constitutionally prescribed annual address to the Federal Assembly has been postponed indefinitely (RTVi.com, December 15). Speculation…

Saudi Energy Minister Says OPEC Predictions Have Been Spot On

In an interview with the Saudi state news agency (SPA), the Saudi energy minister said that despite heavy criticism of OPEC+’s recent decision to cut oil output, the cartel’s market predictions have been more accurate than others as they have been based on fundamentals rather than politics. “As I have emphasized multiple times, in OPEC+ we leave politics out of our decision-making process, out of our assessments and forecasting, and we focus solely on market fundamentals. This enables us to assess situations in a more objective…

Saudi Energy Minister Says OPEC Predictions Have Been Spot On

In an interview with the Saudi state news agency (SPA), the Saudi energy minister said that despite heavy criticism of OPEC+’s recent decision to cut oil output, the cartel’s market predictions have been more accurate than others as they have been based on fundamentals rather than politics. “As I have emphasized multiple times, in OPEC+ we leave politics out of our decision-making process, out of our assessments and forecasting, and we focus solely on market fundamentals. This enables us to assess situations in a more objective…

Saudi Energy Minister Says OPEC Predictions Have Been Spot On

In an interview with the Saudi state news agency (SPA), the Saudi energy minister said that despite heavy criticism of OPEC+’s recent decision to cut oil output, the cartel’s market predictions have been more accurate than others as they have been based on fundamentals rather than politics. “As I have emphasized multiple times, in OPEC+ we leave politics out of our decision-making process, out of our assessments and forecasting, and we focus solely on market fundamentals. This enables us to assess situations in a more objective…

Exxon Steers Clear Of Russia-Linked Oil Tankers

Since the G7 price cap on Russian crude oil came into force on December 5, ExxonMobil has started asking shipowners to prove that the tankers they hire out to the U.S. supermajor haven’t shipped oil cargoes linked with Russia in any way, according to a clause in contracts Bloomberg has seen. After the price cap took effect, buyers paying $60 or less per barrel of Russia’s crude will continue to have full access to all EU and G7 insurance and financing services associated with transporting Russian crude to non-EU countries.   Exxon…

Exxon Steers Clear Of Russia-Linked Oil Tankers

Since the G7 price cap on Russian crude oil came into force on December 5, ExxonMobil has started asking shipowners to prove that the tankers they hire out to the U.S. supermajor haven’t shipped oil cargoes linked with Russia in any way, according to a clause in contracts Bloomberg has seen. After the price cap took effect, buyers paying $60 or less per barrel of Russia’s crude will continue to have full access to all EU and G7 insurance and financing services associated with transporting Russian crude to non-EU countries.   Exxon…

Deadly Blast Destroys Russia-Ukraine Gas Export Pipeline

A gas pipeline in central Russia that brings gas from Russia's Arctic through Ukraine to Europe has been shut following a huge blast that ripped through and left three people dead and one injured, Reuters cited local officials and TASS news agency as reporting.  According to the Chuvashia regional Emergencies Ministry, the pipeline blew up during planned maintenance work near the village of Kalinino, about 150 km (90 miles) west of the Volga city of Kazan. The resulting gas flare has been extinguished, with local officials reporting that the…

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