Oil ignores negative news and is back towards $ 52 a barrel

Oil ignores negative news and is back towards $ 52 a barrel



03-08-2017

Oil ignored a series of negative news yesterday, as investors and traders took advantage of earlier losses, pushing prices back to $ 52 a barrel and an eight-week high this week.

London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 12 cents to $ 51.90 a barrel, rising from a session low of $ 51.18 a barrel. The price hit $ 52.93 on Monday, its highest level since late May.

US WTI rose 1 cent to $ 49.17 a barrel. The two contracts fell significantly in the previous session after Royal Dutch Shell announced that its 400,000 bpd Berenice refinery in the Netherlands would remain out of service for at least two weeks after a fire.

The US Petroleum Institute confirmed that US crude inventories rose by 1.8 million barrels in the week ending July 28 to 488.8 million barrels to undermine hopes that the recent drop in inventories was a sign of a narrowing of the supply-demand gap in the US market. Outside the United States, Brent crude has fallen due to reports published this week, showing that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production hit its highest level this year at 33 million bpd, despite pledges by the Organization and independent producers including Russia to cut production by 1.8 million Barrels per day between January and March 2018.

"Kuwait is fully committed to the reduction agreement," KOC Chief Executive Officer Jamal Jaafar said in a statement. "We will not pay an extra premium." He said that the company will start production of heavy oil at the end of 2018 and the production will reach 60 thousand barrels per day within six months of the start of production. He added that the current production of free gas is 200 million barrels per day and is expected to reach half a billion barrels per day by the end of this year.

In Russia, data from the Russian Energy Ministry showed that Russia's oil production stood at 10.95 million bpd in July, unchanged from its level for the third consecutive month, in line with its pledge to cut output to support crude prices.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers, led by Russia, agreed to cut oil production by the end of March 2018. A committee of OPEC and outside countries recommended a further reduction if necessary.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday that Russia had cut its oil production by 307,600 barrels per day in July compared to October, which meant it would honor its commitments under the cut production agreement.

According to the ministry's monthly data, Russia's oil production stood at 46,309 million tons, compared with 44.801 million tons in June. However, the level of daily output remained unchanged, as July is more than June.

Russian crude oil exports in July reached 4.099 million bpd, down from 4.311 million bpd in June.

The majority of Russian oil companies cut or froze their production last month, with the exception of Gazprom, which increased production by 6.7 percent, Novatech, which rose 2.1 percent, and Rosneft, Russia's third largest oil producer, whose output rose 0.1 percent.

The country's gas production reached 50.8 billion cubic meters last month, equivalent to 1.64 billion cubic meters per day, compared with 51.28 billion in June.

A Goldman Sachs report said the results of major oil companies in the second quarter suggest that the sector is adjusting to the price of $ 50 a barrel. "The ratio of cash flow coverage from operating activities to capital expenditures and distributions was 91 percent in the second quarter, which shows that the sector is very close to being able to finance distributions from self-cash flows at a price of $ 50 per barrel," the note said.

Using the techniques of Netflix and Amazon in mineral and petroleum exploration, a study showed that scientists looking for anything from oil and gas to copper and gold are adopting techniques used by companies such as Netflix or Amazon to screen out huge amounts of data.

"The method has already helped detect 10 carbon-containing metals and could be widely applied in prospecting," scientists wrote in the journal American Mineralogist. "Large data refer to new minerals and sediments," they said.

This technique goes beyond conventional geology by collecting data on how and where the minerals formed, such as after lava cooled in the wake of volcanic eruptions. Data may be used to help detect other minerals.

"Minerals are located in the earth in the form of blocks ... When you see them together, they resemble the way people interact together through social networks such as," said Robert Heisen, executive director of the Deep Carbon Observatory at the Carnegie Endowment for Science in Washington, Facebook.

"The technology is also similar to that of Amazon, which recommends books based on previous customer requests, or Netflix, which offers movies based on previous viewing habits," he said. "They are using large amounts of data and establishing interconnected relationships that you may never make," he told Reuters.

Shona Marison, who also works at the Carnegie Endowment for Carbon's Deep Carbon Observatory, noted that luck often plays a big role in geologists looking for new mineral deposits. "We are looking for it in a more systematic way," she said of the project.

Abelite and Persite were among the 10 rare minerals discovered by the project. These minerals do not have economic uses.

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