industryterm:oil market

China Restarts Purchases of Iranian Oil, Bucking Trump’s Sanctions — Bourse & Bazaar
▻https://www.bourseandbazaar.com/articles/2019/5/17/china-restarts-purchases-of-iranian-oil-bucking-trumps-sanctions

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54db7b69e4b00a5e4b11038c/54db7d17e4b0c0e085a1149c/5cddfc2cdc68af0001fc0462/1558068241293/_97338.jpg?format=1500w

PACIFIC BRAVO is currently reporting its destination as Indonesia, but the tanker was recently acquired by Bank of Kunlun, a financial institution that is owned by the Chinese state oil company CNPC. TankerTrackers.com believes China is the ultimate destination for the oil on board.

PACIFIC BRAVO is the first major tanker to load Iranian crude after the Trump administration revoked waivers permitting the purchases by eight of Iran’s oil customers. The revocation of the waivers, which sent shockwaves through the global oil market, was a major escalation of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.

The purchase of Iranian oil in the absence of a waiver exposes the companies involved in the transaction—including the tanker operator, refinery customer, and bank—to possible designation by the U.S. Treasury Department, threatening the links these companies may maintain with the U.S. financial system.

Bank of Kunlun has long been the financial institution at heart of China-Iran bilateral trade—a role for which the company was sanctioned during the Obama administration. Despite already being designated, Bank of Kunlun ceased its Iran-related activities in early May when the oil waivers were revoked. PACIFIC BRAVO’s moves point to a change in policy.

China-Iran trade slowed dramatically after the reimposition of U.S. secondary sanctions in November, suggesting the Chinese government had chosen to subordinate its economic relations with Iran to the much more important issue of its ongoing trade negotiations with the United States. But these negotiations have since broken down. This week, President Trump announced plans to impose tariffs on a further $300 billion in Chinese imports in addition to punitive measures against Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which has been targeted in part for its alleged violations of Iran sanctions.

#iran #chine #pétrole #sanctions

Twelve Empty Supertankers Reveal Truths About Today’s Oil Market - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/twelve-empty-supertankers-reveal-truths-about-today-s-oil-market

They are slowly plowing their way across thousands of miles of ocean toward America’s Gulf of Mexico coastline. As they do, twelve empty supertankers are also revealing a few truths about today’s global oil market.

In normal times, the vessels would be filled with heavy, high sulfur Middle East oil for delivery to refineries in places like Houston or New Orleans. Not now though. They are sailing cargo-less, a practice that vessel owners normally try to avoid because ships earn money by making deliveries.

The 12 vessels are making voyages of as much as 21,000 miles direct from Asia, all the way around South Africa, holding nothing but seawater for stability because Middle East producers are restricting supplies. Still, America’s booming volumes of light crude must still be exported, and there aren’t enough supertankers in the Atlantic Ocean for the job. So they’re coming empty.

“What’s driving this is a U.S. oil market that’s looking relatively bearish with domestic production estimates trending higher, and persistent crude oil builds we have seen for the last few weeks,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam. “At the same time, OPEC cuts are supporting international grades like Brent, creating an export incentive.”

The U.S. both exports and imports large amounts of crude because the variety it pumps — especially newer supplies from shale formations — is very different from the type that’s found in the Middle East. OPEC members are likely cutting heavier grades while American exports are predominantly lighter, Patterson said.

CIA Intercepts Underpin Assessment Saudi Crown Prince Targeted Khashoggi - WSJ
Conclusion that Mohammad ‘probably ordered’ killing relies in part on 11 messages he sent to adviser who oversaw hit squad around time it killed journalist

▻https://www.wsj.com/articles/cia-intercepts-underpin-assessment-saudi-crown-prince-targeted-khashoggi-154364

WASHINGTON—Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent at least 11 messages to his closest adviser, who oversaw the team that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the hours before and after the journalist’s death in October, according to a highly classified CIA assessment.

The Saudi leader also in August 2017 had told associates that if his efforts to persuade Mr. Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia weren’t successful, “we could possibly lure him outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements,” according to the assessment, a communication that it states “seems to foreshadow the Saudi operation launched against Khashoggi.”

Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom’s leadership who lived in Virginia and wrote columns for the Washington Post, was killed by Saudi operatives on Oct. 2 shortly after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he sought papers needed to marry his Turkish fiancée.

Excerpts of the Central Intelligence Agency’s assessment, which cites electronic intercepts and other clandestine information, were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The CIA last month concluded that Prince Mohammed had likely ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, and President Trump and leaders in Congress were briefed on intelligence gathered by the spy agency. Mr. Trump afterward questioned the CIA’s conclusion about the prince, saying “maybe he did; and maybe he didn’t.”

The previously unreported excerpts reviewed by the Journal state that the CIA has “medium-to-high confidence” that Prince Mohammed “personally targeted” Khashoggi and “probably ordered his death.” It added: “To be clear, we lack direct reporting of the Crown Prince issuing a kill order.”

The electronic messages sent by Prince Mohammed were to Saud al-Qahtani, according to the CIA. Mr. Qahtani supervised the 15-man team that killed Mr. Khashoggi and, during the same period, was also in direct communication with the team’s leader in Istanbul, the assessment says. The content of the messages between Prince Mohammed and Mr. Qahtani isn’t known, the document says. It doesn’t say in what form the messages were sent.

It is unclear from the excerpts whether the 2017 comments regarding luring Mr. Khashoggi to a third country cited in the assessment are from Prince Mohammed directly, or from someone else describing his remarks.

Saudi Arabia has acknowledged Mr. Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate. But it has denied Prince Mohammed had any role and blamed the operation on rogue operatives. The Saudi Public Prosecutor’s office last month announced charges against 11 Saudis in connection with Mr. Khashoggi’s death, saying it would seek the death penalty in five cases. The office didn’t release their names.

The U.S. Treasury Department in mid-November slapped sanctions on 17 Saudis whom it linked to the killing. But Mr. Trump, in a statement days later, said he intended to maintain strong relations with the crown prince because of Saudi Arabia’s opposition to Iran, its investments in the U.S. and its role in the oil market.

The Trump administration’s posture has angered many in Congress, and the intercepts and intelligence gathered by the CIA may complicate Mr. Trump’s efforts to maintain relations with Prince Mohammed, the de facto leader one of the world’s biggest oil producers. The two are among the world’s leaders meeting this weekend in Buenos Aires for a summit of Group of 20 nations.

Earlier this week, the Senate voted to begin consideration of a resolution to withdraw U.S. support for a Saudi-led military coalition fighting against Houthi rebels in Yemen, with senators venting their frustration over Mr. Trump’s reluctance to hold Prince Mohammed responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death.

#Transport_maritime : une #mondialisation conteneurisée qui rime encore avec #pollution

La pollution des océans et de notre air est aussi interrogée par le développement du trafic maritime et de géants des mers. Cette semaine, la France a inauguré un #porte-conteneur de 400 mètres de long, alors que le secteur a tardé jusqu’au printemps dernier pour signer un accord en faveur du climat.

https://cdn.radiofrance.fr/s3/cruiser-production/2018/09/38b9f44b-b6ac-4b86-b3cc-8f53c0d40ebf/738_visactu-le-havre-inauguration-du-plus-grand-porte-conteneurs-du-monde-165af9d741e.jpg

ping @simplicissimus @reka

Le principal poste d’importation de brut états-unien teste son fonctionnement en sens inverse. Le supertanker bénéficiant de cette première est un navire saoudien transportant son brut vers… la Chine ;

America’s Supertanker Terminal Set to Export Oil for the First Time - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-13/america-s-supertanker-terminal-set-to-export-oil-for-first-time

The flood of crude leaving the U.S. could be about to get a major boost: the nation’s top imports terminal is testing one of the industry’s biggest tankers to load an export cargo for the first time.

If the trial run signals the start of regular exports from Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, it will be a step change in America’s capacity to export the burgeoning production that’s roiled global oil markets. The ability to load very large crude carriers, the industry term for giant ships able to carry two million barrels, will significantly cut the cost of shipping cargoes overseas.
[…]
On its website, the terminal said it’s testing a supertanker following modifications last year to allow crude exports. Shipping data compiled by Bloomberg and cargo tracking firm Kpler show the tanker is the Saudi Arabian-owned Shaden, chartered by China’s largest oil trader last month.

Nowhere to Go: Automation, Then and Now Part Two | The Brooklyn Rail

▻http://brooklynrail.org/2017/04/field-notes/Nowhere-to-Go-Automation-Then-and-Now-Part-Two

http://brooklynrail.org/article_image/image/18416/Smith-web1.jpg

Arithmetically, the problem is a combination of collapsing productivity and insufficient capital investment.

— Financial Times

On February 19, 2017, the New York Times ran a feature story on recent changes in the United States oil industry.2 The focus was on the recent “embrace” of technological innovation in the industry after the 2014 plunge in the global oil market. This was just one of a rash of such pieces in the popular press, relying, as is typical of such writing, on a smattering of skewed, decontextualized data, a healthy serving of the anecdotal, and a host of the worst tech journalism clichés (“a few icons on a computer screen,” “a click of the mouse,” video game marathons as job training, a compulsory reference to drones).

#automatisation #capitalisme #industrie #robots #otto_neurath

Saudi Arabia ‘deports 40,000 Pakistani workers over terror fears’ | The Independent
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-deports-40000-pakistan-workers-terror-fears-attacks-coun

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/02/13/17/rawalpindi-workers.jpg

The alleged mass deportations come after a year of strikes and other unrest in the kingdom due to unpaid wages following the oil market’s decline and subsequent blow to the Saudi economy.

#Arabie_saoudite

The Oil Market is Bigger Than All Metal Markets Combined
▻http://www.visualcapitalist.com/size-oil-market

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/oil-market-size-2.jpg

Big Oil
The oil market is bigger than all metal markets combined

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Ever since the invention of the internal combustion engine, oil has been one of the most crucial commodities on Earth. Without it, modern transportation as we know it would not be possible. Industries such as aviation, aerospace, automobiles, shipping, and the military would look nothing like they do today.

Of course, as we now know, this has all come with some extreme drawbacks from an environmental perspective. And while new green technology and the lithium revolution will aid in eventually reducing the role of oil in transportation, the fact is we still use 94 million barrels per day of crude worldwide.

#économie #pétrole #énergie #Matière_première #infographie #visualisation

Mothballing the World’s Fanciest Oil Rigs Is a Massive Gamble - Bloomberg
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-19/at-500-million-a-pop-it-s-an-oil-gamble-that-has-no-precedent

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iutLF66y3Mrw/v2/1200x-1.jpg

In a far corner of the Caribbean Sea, one of those idyllic spots touched most days by little more than a fisherman chasing blue marlin, billions of dollars worth of the world’s finest oil equipment bobs quietly in the water.

They are high-tech, deepwater drillships — big, hulking things with giant rigs that tower high above the deck. They’re packed tight in a cluster, nine of them in all. The engines are off. The 20-ton anchors are down. The crews are gone. For months now, they’ve been parked here, 12 miles off the coast of Trinidad & Tobago, waiting for the global oil market to recover.

The ships are owned by a company called Transocean Ltd., the biggest offshore-rig operator in the world. And while the decision to idle a chunk of its fleet would seem logical enough given the collapse in oil drilling activity, Transocean is in truth taking an enormous, and unprecedented, risk. No one, it turns out, had ever shut off these ships before. In the two decades since the newest models hit the market, there never had really been a need to. And no one can tell you, with any certainty or precision, what will happen when they flip the switch back on.
[…]
Nearly half of the world’s available floating rigs are out of work today, and most observers expect that number will climb further. Not only are the drillship operators’ customers — the likes of ConocoPhillips and Total SA — slashing spending in high-cost offshore areas and canceling work contracts early, but new rigs that were ordered in recent years keep rolling out of shipyards. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates as much as $56 billion worth of offshore rigs, capable of drilling in everything from shallow water to oceans more than two miles deep, are still under construction.

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/i7YILzjErogE/v2/-1x-1.png

#sous_cocon

Chilcot’s blind spot: Iraq War report buries oil evidence, fails to address motive | openDemocracy
▻https://www.opendemocracy.net/david-whyte/chilcot-s-oil-blind-spot-in-iraq-war-report

https://cdn.opendemocracy.net/files/imagecache/article_xlarge/wysiwyg_imageupload/560649/PA-1804197.jpg

Most important of these is oil. Buried in deep in volume 9 of the 2.6 million-word report, Chilcot refers to government documents that explicitly state the oil objective, and outlining how Britain pursued that objective throughout the occupation. But he does not consider this evidence in his analysis or conclusions. Oil considerations do not even appear in the report’s 150-page summary.

To many people around the world, it was obvious that oil was a central issue, as Iraq itself had nearly a tenth of the world’s oil reserves, and together with its neighbouring countries nearly two thirds. There was a clear public interest in understanding how that affected UK decisions. Chilcot failed to explore it.

Section 10.3 of the report, in volume 9, records that senior government officials met secretly with BP and Shell on at several occasions (denied at the time) to discuss their commercial interests in obtaining contracts. Chilcot did not release the minutes, but we had obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act: they are posted here. In unusually expressive terms for a civil service write-up, one of the meeting’s minutes began, “Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP are desperate to get in there” (emphasis in original).

Also in that section, Chilcot includes references to several pre-war documents identifying a British objective of using Iraqi oil to boost Britain’s own energy supplies. For example, a February 2002 Cabinet Office paper stated that the UK’s Iraq policy falls “within our objectives of preserving peace and stability in the Gulf and ensuring energy security”. A Foreign Office strategy paper in May 2003, which Chilcot didn’t include, was even more explicit: “The future shape of the Iraqi oil industry will affect oil markets, and the functioning of OPEC, in both of which we have a vital interest”.

Strikes cripple French oil refineries, disrupt shipping | Reuters
▻http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-politics-protests-oil-idUKKCN0YF26X

Le point de vue des pétroliers

Strikes by French oil sector workers protesting proposed labour reforms spread to all the country’s refineries on Tuesday, sapping petrol stations dry and creating delays for tankers at major ports.
[…]
The impact on the oil price has been limited so far: though the strikes have curbed demand from refineries, Brent crude was up nearly 1 percent on Tuesday at $48.73 a barrel on expectations that data would show a U.S. supply overhang was shrinking.

But with just a couple of weeks to go before the kick-off of the Euro 2016 football tournament in France, which is expected to attract more than a million foreign visitors, the government is under pressure to act quickly to free up flows of crude oil and refined products.
[…]
Crude oil traders said there were no signs yet of distress in the market, of cargoes being diverted to other ports, or of owners of physical barrels being forced to sell at steep discounts just to get rid of their oil.

Still, traders said it was probably just a matter of time before charges on ships for late arrival at destination ports, or demurrage, start to rise and owners of physical cargoes may have to fight harder to find buyers for their oil.

The flip-side for the oil market at least is that with French refineries either shut or running at minimum levels, an overhang of excess refined products in Europe is likely to clear up more quickly.

“The combination of upstream production outages and French strikes are going ... to clean up a bit of the overhang in both crude and products. But it will depend on how long either last,” one trader said.

#always_look_on_the_bright_side_of_life …

Rien de tel qu’un bon incendie pour faire marcher le commerce…

After Canada wildfire, a silver lining for businesses | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/canada-wildfire-winners-idUSL2N1880W3

As the Canadian city of Fort McMurray prepares to rebuild after a wildfire reduced parts of it to ash, businesses from ’man camp’ suppliers to pizza parlors are preparing for a spike in demand as clean-up crews, builders and oil sands workers pour into the region.

The fire destroyed more than 2,400 buildings, or around 10 percent of the Alberta city’s structures, damaged more than 500 others and forced some 90,000 people to flee.

“As tragic as this situation is, there is a unique opportunity for a market that had gone very slow, to get some return of growth,” said Russell Dauk, vice president at Alberta builder Rohit Group.

As oil markets weakened, Rohit’s building starts tumbled 80 percent in Fort McMurray over the last three years, forcing it to cut three-quarters of workers there.

Providers of temporary housing, such as Houston-based Civeo Corp, say they are already busy with insurers and bankers who need somewhere to sleep after surveying damage. Its stock is up more than 21 percent since the fire started May 1.

Civeo, the biggest supplier of worker accommodations to Canada’s oil sands projects, expects occupancy to rise at its seven lodges and 14,000 rooms in the area, said Chief Executive Bradley Dodson.
[…]
“Restaurants will be very busy for the first couple of weeks, as people will probably have to throw out their fridges and freezers,” he said.

#man_camp plus ou moins camp de transit ou Algeco de logement…

Saudi Arabia will not stop pumping to boost oil prices - Financial Times

▻http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b639a458-8600-11e5-9f8c-a8d619fa707c.html#ixzz3qzE9lYg9

Saudi Arabia is determined to stick to its policy of pumping enough oil to protect its global market share, despite the financial pain inflicted on the kingdom’s economy.
Officials have told the Financial Times that the world’s largest exporter will produce enough oil to meet customer demand, indicating that the kingdom is in no mood to change tack ahead of the December 4 meeting in Vienna of the producers’ cartel Opec.

“The only thing to do now is to let the market do its job,” said Khalid al-Falih, chairman of the state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco). “There have been no conversations here that say we should cut production now that we’ve seen the pain.”
Saudi Arabia rocked oil markets last November when Opec decided against production cuts, making clear that the kingdom was abandoning its policy of reducing supplies to stabilise the price.
Since then, the oil price has collapsed from a high of $115 a barrel last year to $50 a barrel.
Global oil companies, which have put hundreds of billions of dollars of investment on hold as a result of low prices, will be disappointed by the Kingdom’s stance.
The effect on business sentiment has sparked domestic criticism of the market share policy engineered by Ali al-Naimi, the oil minister, and agreed by both the late King Abdullah and the current King Salman, who was crown prince last year and ascended the throne in January.
Officials in Riyadh say their policy will be vindicated in one to two years when revived demand swallows the global oil glut and prices begin to recover.
They argue that in the past, Opec output cuts raised prices to levels where more expensive production, such as shale and deep-sea oil, could flourish. Moving ahead, Opec — led by Saudi Arabia — plans to pump as much as it can towards meeting global oil demand, leaving higher-cost producers to make up the remainder.
$100 oil was perceived as a guarantee of no risk for investment. Now, the insurance policy that’s been provided free of charge by Saudi Arabia does not exist any more
– Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco
For higher-cost producers, “$100 oil was perceived as a guarantee of no risk for investment”, said Mr Falih. “Now, the insurance policy that’s been provided free of charge by Saudi Arabia does not exist any more.”
Mr Falih, who is also health minister, forecast the market would come into balance in the new year, and then demand would start to suck up inventories and storage on oil tankers. “Hopefully, however, there will be enough investment to meet the needs beyond 2017.”
Other officials also estimated that it would probably take one to two years for the market to clear up the oil market glut, allowing prices to recover towards $70-$80 a barrel.
The fall in government revenues has pushed Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy into a fiscal crunch. To fund this year’s budget deficit of 20 per cent of gross domestic product, the government is dipping into its massive financial reserves.
Officials are also working on a more sustainable strategy to curtail spending, which has ballooned in recent years.
Delaying infrastructure projects, such as the Riyadh underground, and enforcing a spending squeeze across government departments has brought a slowdown in the private sector.
Senior officials dismiss the domestic criticism of the oil policy, saying other producers would have quickly replaced any Saudi production cuts with new output.

Officials, however, acknowledge that the extent of the oil price slump has been deeper than initially envisaged.
“We knew that it was going to be painful but the extent of the pain went beyond our expectations,” said Mr Falih. “The market has overreacted as it typically does in such down-cycles.”
But oil producers are now cancelling projects outright, rather than just deferring them, raising concerns of a future jump in price if demand outpaces supply.
“Now everyone is running to the exit and projects are being cancelled,” said Mr Falih. “That’s necessary, but what will happen five to 10 years from now? Investment is needed.”

Game Change : U.S. Oil Revolution Has Torn Up the Rule Book | Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/02/10/game-change-u-s-oil-revolution-has-torn-up-the-rule-book-iea-shale-op

This, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday, is most definitely not your father’s oil market.

In its annual five-year oil market outlook, the IEA, which is the energy agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), said that the rise of the United States as a heavyweight crude producer, OPEC’s abdication of its historical role as the arbiter of world oil supply, and sluggish oil demand growth worldwide will have big implications for oil producing and consuming countries alike.

The upshot: generally smooth sailing for the United States, a few years of discomfort for cash-rich oil giants in the Persian Gulf, and years of turmoil, crippled finances, and political instability in petrostates like Venezuela. Russia will be hit hardest, the IEA said.

On rappellera juste que l’AIE, historiquement Agence Anti-OPEP, a pour règle fondamentale de

ne pas irriter les Américains.

(cité par WP : ▻http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agence_internationale_de_l'énergie )

PÉTROLE : RUSSES ET SAOUDIENS D’ACCORD POUR NE RIEN FAIRE

Saudis signal no push for oil cut as market to ’stabilize itself’
BY ALEX LAWLER AND AMENA BAKR
VIENNA Wed Nov 26, 2014 5:17am EST
▻http://www.reuters.com

OPEC leader Saudi Arabia signaled on Wednesday it was unlikely to push for a major change in oil output at the producer group’s meeting this week, a day after Russia refused to cooperate in any production cut. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said he expected the oil market “to stabilize itself eventually” but did not comment on talks with Russia held on Tuesday, which produced no firm pledge from Moscow to help support flagging oil prices.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said some OPEC members, although not Iran itself, were gearing up for a battle over market share and insisted that non-OPEC producers needed to participate in any OPEC-led output cut.

“The most important thing for all of us is the unity and solidarity of OPEC, and in this situation I believe we need to have the contribution of non-OPEC producers for managing the market,” Zangeneh told reporters.

 
“Some OPEC members believe that this is the time where we need to defend market share ... All the experts in the market believe we have oversupply in the market and next year we will have more oversupply,” he added.

OPEC’s meeting on Thursday will be one of its most crucial in recent years, with oil prices having tumbled some 30 percent since June to below $79 per barrel due to booming U.S. shale oil output and slower global economic growth.

Among the 12 members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Venezuela and Iraq have called for output cuts. Naimi has not commented on what the group should do.

OPEC usually faces huge tensions from within but as talks over Iran’s nuclear program ended with no breakthrough on Monday, most members felt relief they will not have to deal with a deluge of Iranian oil, currently hit by Western sanctions.

Non-OPEC member Russia, which produces 10.5 million barrels per day (bpd) or 11 percent of global oil, came to Tuesday’s meeting amid hints it might agree to cut output as it suffers from oil’s price fall and Western sanctions over Ukraine.

But as that meeting with Naimi and officials from Venezuela and non-OPEC member Mexico ended, Russia’s most influential oil official, state firm Rosneft’s (ROSN.MM) head Igor Sechin, emerged with a surprise message - Russia will not reduce output even if oil falls to $60 per barrel.

Sechin added that he expected low oil prices to do more damage to producing nations with higher costs, in a clear reference to the shale boom in the United States.

Many at OPEC were taken by surprise by Sechin’s suggestion that Russia - in desperate need of oil prices above $100 per barrel to balance its budget - was ready for a price war.

“Gulf states are less bothered about a price drop compared to other OPEC members,” an OPEC source close to Gulf thinking said, adding that non-OPEC members ultimately needed to cut output if they expected the group to defend prices.

OPEC produces 30 million bpd, or a third of global oil. Its own publications have shown in recent months that global supply will exceed demand by more than 1 million bpd in the first half of next year.

While the statistics speak in favor of a cut, the build-up to the OPEC meeting on Thursday has seen one of the most heated debates in years about the next policy step for the group.

While price hawks such as Venezuela have urged an immediate output cut, some Saudi officials told private briefings in recent months that the kingdom was prepared to withstand low prices - possibly $70 a barrel - for a prolonged period.

Those messages have sparked conspiracy theories ranging from Saudis seeking to curtail the U.S. oil boom, which needs high prices to remain profitable, to Riyadh looking to undermine Iran and Russia due to their support of Saudi’s arch-enemy, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. [ID:nL6N0T85FW]

“I think even Saudi Arabia doesn’t know yet whether a cut can be achieved,” said Virendra Chauhan, an analyst at the Energy Aspects think tank.

Improving U.S. oil production reaches milestone in October, agency says
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/improving-us-oil-production-reaches-milestone-in-october-agency-says/2013/11/13/dd01db86-4c97-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html

The United States produced more crude oil in October than it imported for the first time since early 1995, as domestic shale oil output continued to surge and U.S. consumption of petroleum products remained relatively flat, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/11/14/National-Economy/Graphics/w-oil1114.jpg

The trend is expected to continue for another decade as U.S. domestic oil supplies grow and reliance on imports shrinks, easing one of the main sources of pressure on global oil markets.

The turnaround in U.S. oil fortunes has been rapid. Five years ago, U.S. oil production hit a 62-year low. Since then, domestic production has increased by more than 50 percent.

#énergie #pétrole #pétrole_de_schiste #Etats-Unis

These maps show how Asia is taking over the oil markets

▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/26/these-maps-show-how-asia-is-taking-over-the-oil-markets/?wprss=rss_social-postbusinessonly&Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has created a fascinating short animation showing how the world’s appetite for oil has changed over the past three decades.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2013/08/oil-use-2012.png

Here’s how much petroleum different regions used back in 1980, when the whole world burned about 63.1 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, heating oil and other products:

#énergie #pétrole #asie #consommation_pétrole #consommation_énergie