Saudi Arabia and OPEC are doomed.

[Swordsmyth]

Crude oil production across OPEC slumped by 170,000 bpd last month to 32.04 million bpd, a Bloomberg survey among energy analysts. This is the lowest daily production rate in the cartel since April 2017, when it pumped 31.9 million bpd.
Yet once again the drop was not the result of a conscious effort. Venezuela’s production continued to fall, shedding another 100,000 bpd in March, which made the struggling South American economy the main—if unwilling—contributor to the OPEC production decline. Venezuela pumped 1.51 million bpd last month, versus its OPEC quota of 1.97 million bpd. The country’s cumulative cut as of March stood at 557,000 bpd, versus a pledge cut of just 95,000 bpd.
Algeria was another contributor to the production decline, with output there falling by 40,000 bpd to 1 million bpd as field maintenance season kicked in. Libya was also an unwilling participant in the overall decline, with production there slipping below 1 million bpd on field outages.

Saudi Arabia also continued to pump less than it had pledged to, with the daily average falling by another 10,000 bpd last month to 9.87 million bpd. In comparison, Russia’s production hit the highest in 11 months in March, at 10.97 million bpd, still almost in line with its pledge to OPEC, which was for a cut of 300,000 bpd from its November 2016 average daily of 11.247 million bpd.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...Month-Low.html

[Swordsmyth]

Bahrain announced on Wednesday the size of the oil reserves in the giant discovery that it had made, and figures dwarf the proved reserves that the island kingdom in the Persian Gulf had prior to the latest oil find.

The huge discovery in west Bahrain, named Khalij Al-Bahrain Basin, is estimated to hold more than 80 billion barrels of oil, Oil Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa said at a press conference today. The volume of natural gas at the field is estimated to be between 10 trillion and 20 trillion cubic feet, AFP quoted the minister as saying on Wednesday.
Bahrain announced a few days ago the biggest crude oil discovery in its history that will “dwarf” its current reserves, and details on the size of the reserves were expected to be released later this week.
Before the latest oil discovery, Bahrain was estimated to have proved reserves of just 125 million barrels of crude.
International oil companies are currently helping Bahrain to carry out appraisal studies at the new discovery, and to quantify how much of the oil and gas in place can be extracted, Al-Khalifa said.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oi...ls-Of-Oil.html

[Swordsmyth]

This week, the heir to the Saudi throne met with billionaire Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Hyperloop One, at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California to unveil the “Vision 2030 Hyperloop Pod,” a project that would bring a high-speed Hyperloop transportation system to Saudi Arabia.
The commitment is part of the Crown Prince’s grand “Vision 2030” plan to modernize the economy of the Middle Eastern oil kingdom by 2030.
A Hyperloop system would help position Saudi Arabia as a “gateway to three continents” by dramatically speeding up transportation in the region, Virgin Hyperloop One said in a statement.
The tube-based system, two to three times faster than high-speed rail, will reduce the travel time between Saudi’s capital Riyadh to the country’s commercial hub Jeddah from 10 hours (by train) to 76 minutes. Currently, a direct flight between the two cities takes about 95 minutes.

“Hyperloop is the catalyst to enable all fourth generation technologies to flourish in the Kingdom, while creating a vibrant society and thriving economy through visionary cities and high-tech clusters,” Prince Mohammed said in a statement through Virgin Hyperloop One.

More at: http://observer.com/2018/04/saudi-cr...erloop-system/

[Swordsmyth]

Sinopec To Slash Crude Imports From Saudi Arabia By 40%

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Sinopec-To-Slash-Crude-Imports-From-Saudi-Arabia-By-40.html

[Swordsmyth]

A fifth of U.S. crude oil producers are planning to use their cash flow from operations to fund new production expansion, a survey from Haynes & Boone has found. Besides cash from operations, producers will be using bank debt and private equity financing this year, the survey revealed, signaling continued improvement in the industry.
In further good news for the industry, more than 80 percent of respondents in the survey said they expected borrowing bases this year to rise, which means the value of borrowers’ assets used as collateral when taking out loans will be higher. Still, the increase will not be major, at between 10 and 20 percent, Haynes & Boone noted.
This is the most optimistic sentiment among oil producers since Haynes & Boone began making the bi-annual surveys in 2015. Interestingly enough, the focus of this optimism is not the Permian. In fact, survey respondents believed the next hot spots in U.S. oil will be Eagle Ford and the Austin Chalk in Louisiana, as well as Niobrara and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
Meanwhile, E&Ps are locking in higher oil prices. The law firm estimates that between 50 and 60 percent of their 2018 oil production has already been hedged. This means producers have insulated themselves—at least to a certain degree—from any sharp downward price moves that might come later this year.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...f-Finance.html

[goldenequity]

[Swordsmyth]

It will go down again.

[Swordsmyth]

For months, Saudi Arabia has been said to aim for oil at $70 a barrel, but now new hints and reports suggest that Riyadh is likely shooting for oil at $80—to help finance increasingly ambitious domestic policy plans and to boost the valuation of its oil giant Aramco ahead of its much-hyped IPO.
If this unofficial oil price target were reached, however, it could backfire spectacularly on both sides of the oil-market-balance equation—supply and demand.
$80 oil would trigger an even bigger U.S. crude oil production surge that could unravel OPEC’s efforts at eliminating the glut. Oil at $80 could also slow down global oil demand growth, undermining one of the cartel and friends’ key assumptions: that robust demand growth will absorb the non-OPEC supply and that demand growth will continue to be strong going forward. Last year, oil demand growth surprised a bit on the upside, helping bloated inventories to draw down significantly.

Yet, targeting $80 oil—if we assume that Saudi Arabia is doing that—has its economic reasons. According to RBC Capital Markets, OPEC’s producers need oil even higher—at an average of $88 a barrel—to balance their public spending this year, Bloomberg Gadfly’s Liam Denning writes.

For Saudi Arabia, the price of oil needed to balance the 2018 public spending is $83 a barrel. The OPEC member that needs the ‘lowest’ price of oil to balance this year’s expenditure is Iran, at $52 a barrel, according to data by RBC Capital Markets.
It comes as little surprise then that Saudi Arabia and Iran—apart from the tense regional archrivalry—are reportedly at odds over where to go next with the OPEC deal, and how high an oil price the cartel should target. Iran is reportedly suggesting that $60 oil is about right so as not to encourage U.S. shale (even more), while Saudi Arabia is in need of higher-than-$60 oil to balance budget spending and lift Aramco’s valuation to anywhere close to the US$2 trillion that officials have been targeting.

At Brent above $60 and WTI at a $3-4 a barrel discount, U.S. crude oil production has exceeded 10 million bpd in each of the weeks in February and March, EIA data shows. The Permian continues to boom, and even in case of takeaway capacity constraints—which have led to around $11 a barrel discount of Midland, Texas, oil to Brent—Permian producers would pump at profit if Brent were to rise (and stay) at $80, Bloomberg’s Denning argues.


Then, higher oil prices could also spur more production from areas outside the hottest U.S. shale play. According to the Dallas Fed Energy Survey from March 2018, the average WTI breakeven price to profitably drill a new well in the U.S. ranges from $47 to $55 per barrel. All the main areas, including the Permian, Bakken, and SCOOP/STACK, have average breakevens at less than $54 WTI, according to executives from 65 E&P firms.
The higher the oil price the Saudis (or OPEC) target and possibly reach, the more areas in the U.S. would be profitable to drill and add to the global oil supply, potentially wiping out the effect of the cuts and depressing oil prices again.
On the demand side, oil at $80 could hurt global oil demand growth, which was the tailwind last year to help OPEC significantly reduce the oversupply. Demand growth could also slacken should the current U.S.-China trade spat hurt global trade and impact global economic growth. While the effects of a possible trade war are still just in the realm of possibilities and analysts are waiting for all the rhetoric dust to settle, if trade and economic growth were to weaken, they could affect the pace of oil demand growth. This could undermine the assumptions of OPEC and allies that strong demand growth in the short term would help the cartel to achieve its mission to bring inventories down to normal levels.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Pric...-Backfire.html

[Swordsmyth]

OPEC and allies will keep the oil production cuts through the end of 2018, and will discuss at their June meeting whether to extend those cuts further, Kuwait’s Oil Minister Bakheet al-Rashidi said on Monday.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...l-In-June.html

[Swordsmyth]

Most headlines with "Saudi Arabia" in them seem to feature a hefty sum of money. A US$500-billion smart city here, a US$200-billion solar project there--it's beginning to look like Saudi Arabia wouldn't even look at a project if it costs less than a billion dollars.
One also gets the distinct feeling that Saudi Arabia is still an extremely rich nation that can afford all these projects, even without the listing of its state oil giant Aramco.
The truth, however, may be that it can't afford them even with the Aramco listing. Here's a simple calculation. The Neom city project and the SoftBank deal alone come in at US$700 billion. Add to this a US$10-billion deal with Egypt for another smart city, the US$44-billion refinery deal with three Indian companies, and a couple of smaller projects: a US$7-billion refinery in Malaysia and a US$5-billion petrochemicals complex in Saudi Arabia. The bottom line of this selection: US$766 billion.
Of course, the Kingdom won't finance all these projects on its own, but it will need to finance a certain portion of them—in some of the projects, even half of the total. Also, these are not all the large-scale projects that Saudi Arabia has signed up for. Let's make a crude assumption that Riyadh's participation in the megaprojects is half, at US$383 billion. Can it afford it?
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the government's investment vehicle, has US$250 billion in assets under management. Plans are to expand this to US$400 billion by 2020 through local and international investments, but right now US$250 billion is what the Kingdom has in the fund, and oil is still below its target price of US$80 a barrel. Meanwhile, the 2018 Saudi budget features a deficit of US$52 billion and some observers believe the Kingdom is stretching itself too thin with all its ambitious reform plans.

So far so good, but won't Aramco's listing be enough to cover all expenses related to the megaprojects and then some? That's a tough one to answer. The Saudis themselves insist that the world's largest oil company by reserves is worth US$2 trillion. Independent experts, however, doubt that. As Bloomberg's Liam Denning recently wrote, the only way to come up with the US$2 trillion valuation is to make "some heroic assumptions."
Let's be heroic, then, and assume that Aramco is really this valuable. At a total value of $2 trillion, the 5 percent that the government in Riyadh plans to float will bring in proceeds of US$100 billion—in a best-case scenario, of course. Add this to the US$250 billion currently available in the sovereign wealth fund, and you end up with US$350 billion, which is US$33 billion short of the first assumption about the six abovementioned investments that Saudi Arabia has committed to make.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...aprojects.html

[Swordsmyth]

One new challenge for MENA oil producers will be the fact that Asian consumers are starting to work against the so-called “Asian Premium”.
Indian minister of petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan already stated to the press that India, in close cooperation with China and other Japanese consumers, will be pushing for changes to the “Asian Premium” contracts of OPEC. Sanjiv Singh, chairman of Indian Oil Corporation, and Wan Yalin, chairman of China’s oil giant CNPC, will be setting up a strategy to force OPEC to set a new and fairer price for Asian customers. This could be a major blow to Arab and Iranian oil producers, as it could lower overall revenues dramatically.

From an Asian standpoint, the call for change is fair, especially as China, Indian, Japan and South Korea are the main consumers of Middle East oil & gas. The historic approach of an “Asian Premium” was partly based on more costly transportation and high demand for crude and LNG/natural gas in European and U.S. markets. The removal of real competition between East and West of Suez has led to an almost exclusive oil and gas trade strategy between MENA producers and Asian consumers.
Asia’s overall position has increased due to economic growth and soaring energy consumption. When looking at the Asian consumers, it no longer seems fair to pay more for the same product. A possible coordinated price change demand by the Asian Tigers, including India, could put Arab and Iranian oil volumes under increased price pressure.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oi...OPEC-Deal.html

[goldenequity]

Russia & Iran drop dollar trade by extending oil-for-goods supply agreement
https://www.rt.com/business/424541-r...-oil-supplies/

The first delivery of Iranian crude oil to Russia under the oil-for-goods program has been completed and the sides aim to extend the deal for five years, according to Russian Energy Ministry Aleksandr Novak.

“The agreement is effective; it has been extended for the year, but in general, we think it should be extended for five years,” he said.

The oil-for-goods deal was initially reached in 2014 when Iran was under Western sanctions over its nuclear program. Last year, Moscow and Tehran ratified the agreement, under which Russia would initially buy 100,000 barrels a day from Iran and sell the country $45 billion worth of goods.

[Swordsmyth]

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that oil prices are “artificially very high” and “will not be accepted”, the day after the price of oil reached its highest level since the end of 2014.

President Trump tweeted early on Friday:
“Looks like OPEC is at it again. With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!”
The tweet came a day after oil prices reached end-2014 highs, with WTI Crude nearing $70 a barrel early on Thursday, following another drop in U.S. inventories and talk of Saudi Arabia reportedly pushing for oil prices as high as $100 a barrel.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...il-Prices.html

[Swordsmyth]

The number of oil rigs in the United States increased by 5 this week, for a total of 820 active oil wells in the U.S.—a figure that is 132 more rigs than this time last year.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...mbs-Again.html

[Swordsmyth]

OPEC and non-OPEC producers could reconsider the size of the production cuts they agreed in December 2016 and “ease the cuts,” Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak told TASS during today’s meeting of the partners in Jeddah.
“We will monitor the market situation over the next two months,” Novak said, “and we will assess it when we meet again in June. The deal will continue until the end of the year but in June we might discuss the question of reducing the cut quotas over that period.”
Once again, the Russian Energy Minister is providing some counter-pressure to its partner Saudi Arabia’s upbeat attitude about the future of the cut deal by hinting that not everything is set in stone, and that the cuts might not continue indefinitely regardless of how much Riyadh wants higher oil prices.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...tion-Cuts.html

[Swordsmyth]

Over the next five years, it is projected that ConocoPhillips will be adding 100,000 barrels a day to the trans-Alaska pipeline for a total 650,000 barrels a day, an 18 percent increase. This is great news after years of dwindling volumes--to put today’s 550,000 barrels per day in perspective, when the pipeline peaked in 1988 it was funneling 2.1 million barrels of oil per day through Alaska, an economy that relies heavily on oil revenues but has been seeing volatile returns in the past years.

The newfound interest in Alaskan oil is not limited to ConocoPhillips, however. Investors and developers from as far-flung places as Papua New Guinea (PNG) have moved in to get a piece of the action. Last month a PNG-based company called Oil Search took over operations with a $400 million stake in the Nanushuk field. The field is part of the massive Pikka unit, reportedly the state’s third largest with an estimated volume of 1.2 billion barrels of oil (some sources have even reported up to 3 billion barrels). Oil Search bought a large stake in the field from Denver-based Armstrong Oil and Gas, while Spanish-based Repsol owns another significant portion.
Alaska’s State Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack told the Associated Press saying that Pikka alone could reverse the extended decline in the trans-Alaska pipeline. Oil Search is equally bullish about the prospects, saying that the first planned development could account for an investment in the range of $4 billion to $6 billion, with a goal to have their oil flowing through the trans-Alaska pipeline by 2023.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oi...-Oil-Rush.html

[Swordsmyth]

U.S. oil floods Europe, hurting OPEC and Russia

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-revenge-u-oil-floods-europe-hurting-opec-131846913--finance.html

[Swordsmyth]

Extending the OPEC cuts beyond their current expiry date at the end of 2018 would seem unnecessary if oil prices keep rising, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told the Iranian oil ministry’s news service Shana on Monday.
“High oil prices, even in the mid-term, would destabilize the prices and put pressure on them against OPEC’s interests,” the official outlet of the Iranian oil ministry quoted Zangeneh as saying.
When asked about Iran’s position regarding an extension of the OPEC production cuts beyond 2018, Zangeneh told Shana:
“No decision will be made regarding this issue in the upcoming OPEC meeting because the matter is unlikely to be included in the meeting’s agenda.”
Commenting on oil prices, the Iranian oil minister said, “I think that the balanced, non-fluctuating price of oil would be favorable for OPEC and other producers.”

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...OPEC-Deal.html

[Swordsmyth]

Having slashed Saudi crude imports for May by 40 percent, China’s Sinopec—the largest oil refiner in Asia—will continue to cut imports of the flagship Saudi crude grade in June and July, as the prices for other Middle Eastern grades are more favorable, two executives at Sinopec’s trading arm Unipec told Reuters on Tuesday.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...l-Imports.html

[Swordsmyth]

US drillers added 8-rigs to the total number of oil and gas rigs this week, according to Baker Hughes, adding 5 oil rigs and 3 gas rigs.

US oil production rose again in the week ending April 20, reaching 10.586 million bpd—the nineth build in as many weeks—less than a half million bpd off the 11.0 million bpd forecast that many predict for 2018.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...Rig-Count.html

[Swordsmyth]

While oil exporting nations are benefiting from higher oil prices, oil importers face growing crude import bills that affect government finances.
India—the world’s third-largest oil importer—is one of the biggest losers of the higher oil prices in recent months, as the increased price of oil widens its trade deficit, puts more upside pressure on inflation that threatens to exceed government targets, and risks reducing current projections for robust economic growth. All this is happening while Indian politicians and consumers (voters) face a series of elections this year and next, with a general election expected to be held in the spring of 2019.
In March 2018, India paid a nearly 14-percent higher crude oil import bill than in March 2017. The value in U.S. dollars of India’s oil imports—accounting for more than 80 percent of its oil consumption—in the fiscal year April 2017-March 2018 rose by 25.47 percent compared to the previous fiscal year, government trade data shows.
In early April, India’s Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Bloomberg that oil prices at $70 a barrel are ‘too high’ for India’s economy, which is a very price-sensitive market.
“I’d be more than happy if the prices are around $50 plus,” the minister said, adding that if the Saudis were targeting $80 a barrel oil price, it would “pinch India in a big way.”

More at: https://oilprice.com/Finance/the-Eco...s-Economy.html

[Swordsmyth]

Iran’s crude oil exports reached a record 2.617 million bpd in April, according to its oil ministry’s news service Shana—the highest level since Iran signed the nuclear deal with global powers that now hangs in the balance as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to pull out of the agreement.
Iran exported record-high volumes of crude oil and condensate of 2.877 million bpd to Asian and European markets, Shana reported.

Iran’s crude oil exports last month beat the previous record of 2.44 million bpd from October 2016.
Ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed that Iran last month exported 2.83 million bpd of crude and condensate, up from 2.48 million bpd in March. Crude oil exports alone increased to 2.48 million bpd in April from 2.06 million bpd in March, Bloomberg data showed.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...ions-Loom.html

[Swordsmyth]

Saudi Arabia needs oil to trade at US$85 a barrel to fill its budget gap, IMF’s head for the Middle East and Asia said today.
“The improvement in the overall economic conditions with growth recovering this year - it is expected to be at 1.8 percent - will help them to maintain the pace of fiscal adjustment and at the same time will allow the economy to grow again,” Jihad Azour said, as quoted by Reuters.
The Kingdom presently plans to have a balanced budget by 2023, but this will only happen if oil prices are high enough, it seems. For this year, Saudi Arabia has stipulated a budget deficit of around US$52 billion, which represents 7.3 percent of GDP.
The bad news is that the oil price that the Kingdom needs to make ends meet is rising. Last year, Azour said, it was US$83 a barrel. This year, it will be between US$85 and US$87 a barrel.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...il-Prices.html

[Swordsmyth]

New shale oil well productivity drove U.S. production higher in the last few years, with the average daily rate for the first month of operation rising from less than 100 barrels for most shale plays to between 200 and more than 600 barrels, the Energy Information Administration said in a new report.

Image courtesy: EIA
Last year, the energy authority said, shale oil production came to account for 54 percent of the United States’ overall oil production, in part thanks to this higher new-well productivity. The EIA said this higher productivity was the result of a combination of factors including the wider use of hydraulic fracturing and the drilling of more—and longer—horizontal wells, but most notably the increase in the amounts of frac sand used in new wells.
This combination of factors helped shale drillers to stay afloat and keep production going even during the downturn. In 2015 and 2016 there were fewer new wells drilled, but those that did get drilled were located in more productive areas and were drilled more quickly. Now that the worst is over, they are focusing on the Permian, the EIA noted, which holds more untapped reserves than the rest of the oil patch.

Average full-cycle breakeven costs in the Permian are US$42 per barrel, according to Rystad Energy. This accounts for the costs of the whole process—from drilling a well to starting production from it. If you add to its exploration costs for new locations, the cost comes in at US$48 per barrel—still significantly less than, say, offshore fields, and a lot below current oil prices.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...tion-Jump.html

[Zippyjuan]

Almost a year now. Have the Russian and Saudi economies collapsed yet?

[pcosmar]

War on who??

none of that explain why the price at the pump keeps rising while the cost of crude is at record lows.

[Swordsmyth]

Almost a year now. Have the Russian and Saudi economies collapsed yet?

Did I ever say it would happen in 1 year?

[Swordsmyth]

The current tailwind in the oil market is likely to propel 100 new offshore projects to be sanctioned in 2018, according to Rystad Energy. This compares to only 60 projects in 2017 and below 40 in 2016, as shown in the latest Oilfield Service Report by Rystad Energy. These projects represent a collective $100 billion worth of capital investment, giving an average of about $1 billion per project. In contrast, the average projected capex for offshore projects approved in 2013 was $1.8 billion.
“The offshore suppliers have created their own comeback,” says Audun Martinsen, VP of Oilfield Service Research at Rystad Energy. “Their constant search for cost reductions and streamlining of operations has enabled them to cut offshore project costs by almost 50% compared to the heights of the last cycle.”
According to Rystad Energy, the prices charged by offshore suppliers have fallen more than onshore, and it depicts an average reduction of close to 30% in 2018 compared to 2014. The main driver for this is the large drop in day rates by offshore drilling contractors, which is down 50-70%. EPCI costs for surface platforms and subsea infrastructure are down by 20-30%.
“Not only are the suppliers charging less for their services, they have also improved the efficiencies of their operations, thus shortening lead times from project sanctioning to first oil. As an example, the time required to drill and complete a well has fallen by 30% in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil over the past four years,” Martinsen adds.

The average breakeven price for deepwater developments currently stands at about $45 per barrel, and for shallow water it is close to $30 per barrel. Meanwhile payback times have fallen by three years for deepwater projects and by 1.5 years for shallow water schemes since 2014. “Offshore projects can now compete with some of the best acreages in the Permian basin in terms of breakeven prices. With rising inflation in the US shale, offshore appears geared to out-compete shale this year and next,” Martinsen says.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...d-In-2018.html

[Swordsmyth]

Russia’s oil production held onto an 11-month high in April, flat compared to March and above its quota under the OPEC/non-OPEC deal for a second consecutive month, according to data by Russia’s Energy Ministry.
Russia pumped a total of 10.97 million bpd of oil in April, unchanged from March, and slightly above its quota under the production cut deal, according to energy ministry data, as carried by Reuters.
Russia’s pledge in the OPEC/non-OPEC deal is to shave off 300,000 bpd from its October 2016 level, which was the country’s highest monthly production in almost 30 years—11.247 million bpd.
Last month, production at the larger Russian companies increased, while a decline at the smaller firms offset that growth. Production at Rosneft, the largest Russian oil company, inched up by 0.1 percent in April over March, while Gazprom Neft—which has an ambitious production growth plan—saw its oil production increase by 0.9 percent month on month. The combined production of the smaller oil companies decreased by 0.9 percent last month, offsetting the production gains at the bigger producers.
After three months of steady output, Russia’s crude oil production increased in March to 10.97 million bpd, the highest level since April 2017, as the top two Russian companies— Rosneft and Lukoil—boosted their production.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...Complying.html

[Swordsmyth]

China’s Sinopec will cut its June imports of crude from Saudi Arabia by 40 percent for the second month in a row because of unjustified high prices, an official from the top Asian refiner, Unipec, told Reuters.

More at: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oi...e-Imports.html