Saudi Arabia and OPEC are doomed.

[Swordsmyth]

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a shocking build of 6.513 million barrels of United States crude oil inventories, against a Wall Street Journal analyst expectation that inventories would draw down by 1.4 million barrels for the week ending November 10. Three polled analysts expected a rise, and eight expected them to fall. The spread of the forecasts was wide, ranging from a draw of 3.5 million barrels to a build of 2.5 million barrels—significantly short of the massive build the API reported.
Gasoline inventories, according to the API, also saw a build this week, of 2.399 million barrels for the week ending November 10, against an expectation of a draw of 1.1 million barrels. The range of analyst expectations is from a 3-million-barrel decline to a 2-million-barrel build.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...ventories.html

[Swordsmyth]

The head of Saudi Arabia's stock exchange has said the Tadawul is pushing to be the "exclusive" venue for the initial public offering of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco, raising questions about the status of any international listing for what has been billed as the biggest IPO in history.

More at: http://www.afr.com/news/politics/wor...0171026-gz8izu

[Swordsmyth]

Saudi Oil Minister: Markets Will Not Rebalance By March

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Saudi-Oil-Minister-Markets-Will-Not-Rebalance-By-March.html

[Swordsmyth]

Iraq Steps In To Offset Falling Venezuela Oil Production

Since the start of the year, Iraq has increased its heavy crude exports to India by some 80,000 bpd, while Venezuelan shipments to India fell by 84,000 bpd. Iraq has also raised its crude oil shipments to the U.S., to 201,000 bpd more in the first ten months of the year. In the same period, Venezuelan cargoes to the U.S. fell by 90,000 bpd.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-N...roduction.html

[Swordsmyth]

Keystone XL Pipeline Gains Approval After A 9-Year Battle

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Keystone-XL-Pipeline-Gains-Approval-After-A-9-Year-Battle.html




The world's largest oil exporter could be poised to back out of a widely anticipated extension to global supply cuts, Chris Weafer, senior partner at Macro-Advisory, said Friday.
OPEC members are reportedly forming a consensus with other allied crude exporters to extend their production deal by nine months. That would prolong the agreement among OPEC, Russia and other oil-producing nations to keep 1.8 million barrels a day off the market through the whole of next year.
Nonetheless, Weafer said that while at first glance Russia backing out of a production deal looking to clear a global supply overhang seemed to be a "crazy position to take," the context of Russia's changing industrial priorities meant it actually made "perfect sense."
Weafer said if oil stays in the $60 to $65 a barrel range, Moscow's support for a deal extension beyond March next year would be "very unlikely." Weafer said that Russia still makes money with the oil price in the mid-$50s and any higher would prompt U.S. shale firms to ramp up production. He also believes that this price would incentivize the Russian economy to diversify away from oil, a major long-term benefit for the country.


More at: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/17/why-...opec-deal.html

[Swordsmyth]

Gazprom Speaks Out Against OPEC Production Cut Extension

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Gazprom-Speaks-Out-Against-OPEC-Production-Cut-Extension.html

[Swordsmyth]

Saudi Oil Exports Fall To Six-Year Low In September

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Oil-Exports-Fall-To-Six-Year-Low-In-September.html


U.S. Oil Rig Count Rises Amid Record Breaking Production

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/US-Oil-Rig-Count-Rises-Amid-Record-Breaking-Production.html

[Swordsmyth]

Waha Oil chairman, Ahmed Ammar, said the company is searching for alternative funding to pay for the replacement of corroded pipelines and 12 oil tanks that were destroyed during the Libyan revolution and the 2014 Libya Dawn attacks, Libya Herald reported Nov. 21. Ammar said the company would like to increase its production from 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 600,000 bpd

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...ase-production

[Swordsmyth]

The 20 percent increase in oil prices since September led to a wave of hedging by U.S. shale drillers eager to lock in future production at prices not seen in years. The flip side of that hedging wave is that locking in prices could cut the price rally off at the knees, ensuring that more supply will be forthcoming in the next few quarters.
Shale drillers were hesitant for much of the year, but kicked their hedging programs into high gear after oil prices posted strong gains beginning in September. “The past three months have seen a significant increase in oil hedging, with the volume of new positions more than twice the volume of Q3 hedges that rolled off the books,” Standard Chartered wrote in a recent research note.
The volume of oil hedged for 2018 increased by 29 percent over the past three months.

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

[Swordsmyth]

Oil Production Cuts Taking A Toll On Russia’s Economy

The OPEC/non-OPEC production cuts hurt Russia’s economic growth in October, Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said on Thursday in the first negative comment about the pact from a high-ranking Russian official.
“Because of the OPEC deal we have a negative direct impact from oil production, as well as indirect effects related to low investment activity due to production limits,” Oreshkin said, just a week before OPEC and its non-OPEC allies led by Russia meet to decide on the extension of the deal.

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

[Swordsmyth]

U.S. Boosts Oil Exports To Key Asian Markets

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/US-To-Ramp-Up-Oil-Exports-To-Asia.html

[goldenequity]

Saudis got talent? hahaha

[Swordsmyth]

Iraq Offers Nine New Oil Blocks In Move To Boost Production

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Iraq-Offers-Nine-New-Oil-Blocks-In-Move-To-Boost-Production.html

[Swordsmyth]

Exxon Inaugurates 150,000 BPD Offshore Field In Canada

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Exxon-Inaugurates-150000-BPD-Offshore-Field-In-Canada.html

[Swordsmyth]

OPEC, NOPEC Ministers Recommend 9-Month Extension

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/OPEC-NOPEC-Ministers-Recommend-9-Month-Extension.html


U.S. Makes It To China’s Top Ten Crude Oil Supplier List

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Makes-It-To-Chinas-Top-Ten-Crude-Oil-Supplier-List.html


U.S. Shale Becomes More Flexible, Hedges 900,000 Barrels

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/US-Shale-Becomes-More-Flexible-Hedges-900000-Barrels.html

[Swordsmyth]

OPEC talks ended in Vienna on Thursday with an agreement to extend the production cut deal through the end of 2018, a delegate told Reuters.

Meanwhile, non-OPEC South Sudan is studying the benefits of joining OPEC because it looks to double its oil production in 12 months from the current 135,000 bpd, Reuters quoted South Sudan Oil Minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth as saying on Wednesday.
The meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC—which will be another interesting thing to follow given Russia’s reportedly less eager position on an outright extension to the end of 2018—has just started at the time of writing.

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


Libya, Nigeria Agree To Cap At Less Than 2.8 Million Bpd Total

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Libya-Nigeria-Agree-To-Cap-At-Less-Than-28-Million-Bpd-Total.html

[Swordsmyth]

Breakthrough Could Spark A New Oil Boom

The next phase is phenomenally high-tech, and should turn the U.S. into a net exporter of fossil fuels.And the tech doesn’t get much higher than a breakthrough that can take the ‘dirty’ out of the oil sands production process and unlock trillions of barrels trapped in the sands in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.
But that’s just where the dominance starts: The tech may be licensed globally where countless trillions of barrels of oil are waiting to be tapped into without leaving behind a toxic tragedy everywhere from Canada and Venezuela to Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Angola—as well as a handful of high-profile venues in between.
The technology is proprietary and patented, and it is expected to produce oil at around $22 per barrel, leaving clean, dry sands and without using all the water that is crucial to dry states.

New Production by February, 2018 at Market-Defying $22 per Barrel Production Costs
Utah, Colorado and Wyoming represent over 1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent in oils sands and shale, and Petroteq is uniquely positioned to use its proprietary tech to tap into this resource and contribute to the U.S. energy independence equation in a significant way.
Utah alone is home to more than half of all U.S. oil sands deposits, and the Unitah region has been producing oil since the 1950s. It’s got more than 32 billion barrels of oil sands waiting to be extracted from 8 major deposits. It’s also got fantastic infrastructure, with 5 major refiners with truck routes to Salt Lake City, and a royalties set-up that makes great sense for operators.
And it’s right here—in Asphalt Ridge—that Petroteq has 87 million barrels of oil equivalent.


(Source: Petroteq)
Even better, this is heavy oil-producing oil sands that can be accessed directly from the surface, so there’s no risk of running into a ‘dry well’.
Better still, costs to produce are expected to come in at only $22 a barrel.
With one plant, Petroteq says it’s potential is $10 million a year in profit with $20-$30 per barrel production costs at today’s oil prices.
They acquired Asphalt Ridge for $10 million, and they’ve already proved that they can extract the oil from the sands and the shale. Permits to produce are already in place, and 10,000 barrels were produced in 2015.
Now the modular plant has been moved even closer to oil resources and is being reassembled. New production will launch in early 2018, and the goal is 5,000 bpd in 2019 at a cost of production of as low as $18 per barrel. And there’s potential, says Petroteq, to achieve 30,000 bopd with proven reserves.
Demand is expected to be voracious with oil that comes in at a $20 discount to WTI. And that’s just the oil from a single plant: This story gets much bigger if you read on…

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

[Swordsmyth]

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, agreed to extend cuts in oil production until the end of 2018, Reuters reported Nov. 30.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...l-cut-end-2018

[Swordsmyth]

U.S. oil production surged in September, jumping by a massive 290,000 bpd from a month earlier, hitting 9.48 mb/d. That figure seems to put to rest a lot of questions about the EIA overestimating U.S. oil production in its weekly surveys, which have consistently come in much higher than the more accurate monthly figures. The production numbers for September go a long way toward backing up the notion that the U.S. shale industry shifted into expansion after prices jumped above $50 per barrel.

For a taste of what’s in store, Rystad Energy, for example, predicts that the U.S. will hit 9.9 mb/d by the end of 2017, which will give U.S. shale a lot of momentum heading into next year.

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

[Swordsmyth]

Oil Rig Count Rises After OPEC Deal Extension

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Oil-Rig-Count-Rises-After-OPEC-Deal-Extension.html


Asian Refiners Look To Boost U.S. Oil Shipments

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Asian-Refiners-Look-To-Boost-US-Oil-Shipments.html

[Swordsmyth]

WTI/RBOB Sink On Massive Product Inventory Builds

A relatively stable day in energy markets as many other markets turmoiled, but as tonight's data hit, both WTI/RBOB kneejerked lower after API showed massive product inventory builds (despite a big crude draw).

API

• Crude -5.48mm (-2.5mm exp)
• Cushing -1.95mm (-2.4mm exp)
• Gasoline +9.196mm - biggest build since Jan 2016
• Distillates +4.259mm - biggest build since Jul 2017

After last week's surprise product builds and huge destocking at Cushing, expectations are high for more of the latter, but Cushing's Draw was less than expeted and the massive builds in Gasoline and Distillates was shocking...


More at: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...ventory-builds

[Swordsmyth]

WTI/RBOB Extend Losses On Biggest Gasoline Build In 11 Months, Record Crude Production

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-06/wtirbob-extend-losses-biggest-gasoline-build-11-months-record-crude-production

[goldenequity]

Putin to boost shipping LNG via Russian Tankers (increasing competition against US LNG industry)


PUTIN PROPOSES CONSIDERING USING DEFENSE INDUSTRY TO DEVELOP RUSSIAN LNG PLANTS

Putin takes part as first Yamal LNG tanker begins loading

LNG PRODUCTION, EXPORTS MUST NOT WEAKEN POSITION OF PIPELINE GAS EXPORTS, MUST STRENGTHEN ITS POSITION ABROAD – PUTIN

[Swordsmyth]

U.S. Rig Count Rises Amid Falling OPEC Output

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/US-Rig-Count-Rises-Amid-Falling-OPEC-Output.html

[goldenequity]

Putin to boost shipping LNG via Russian Tankers (increasing competition against US LNG industry)
PUTIN PROPOSES CONSIDERING USING DEFENSE INDUSTRY TO DEVELOP RUSSIAN LNG PLANTS
Putin takes part as first Yamal LNG tanker begins loading
LNG PRODUCTION, EXPORTS MUST NOT WEAKEN POSITION OF PIPELINE GAS EXPORTS, MUST STRENGTHEN ITS POSITION ABROAD – PUTIN

Putin opens Russia’s $27bn Arctic LNG plant
https://www.rt.com/business/412468-r...g-plant-putin/


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQnKlApW4AARY7Z.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQnKn3zWsAEK3MU.jpg:large

[Swordsmyth]

Just two weeks after it pledged to cap its crude oil production at the level of 1 million barrels daily, Libya has sent a signal that it actually has immediate plans to raise this, according to media reports.
In a rare meeting this weekend, the Prime Minister of the UN-recognized Government of National Accord met with the heads of the National Oil Corporation and the Libyan central bank to discuss funding for boosting crude oil production.

https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Int...tion-Deal.html



Kuwaiti Oil Minister: OPEC Cuts May End Earlier Than Planned

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Kuwaiti-Oil-Minister-OPEC-Cuts-May-End-Earlier-Than-Planned.html

[Swordsmyth]

Saudis To Slash Oil Exports To Asia By 100,000 Bpd

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Saudis-To-Slash-Oil-Exports-To-Asia-By-100000-Bpd.html

[Swordsmyth]

The U.S. Administration is getting ready to announce as early as this week a plan to expand oil and gas drilling in U.S. offshore waters, including in the Atlantic, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the plan.
In April this year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to revise the schedule of proposed oil and gas lease sales, to include, but not limited to, the Western Gulf of Mexico, Central Gulf of Mexico, Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, Cook Inlet, Mid-Atlantic, and South Atlantic. The East Coast is a territory that President Barack Obama had ruled out as an area for drilling.
According to Bloomberg’s sources, the new plan responds to the oil industry’s drive to have more areas to drill. The new offshore oil drilling plan would be for the five years from 2019 to 2024 and would replace the Obama drilling plan that ends in 2022.

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

[Swordsmyth]

Saudis Plan To Hike Gasoline Prices By 80% In January

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Saudis-Plan-To-Hike-Gasoline-Prices-By-80-In-January.html

[Swordsmyth]

EIA Lowers 2018 Oil Demand Growth Estimates By 40,000 Bpd

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/EIA-Lowers-2018-Oil-Demand-Growth-Estimates-By-40000-Bpd.html