Headlines
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Gold stays below 950$/oz level
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Chinese demand pushes copper up
Brent and Distillates
Brent nearly unchanged and WTI lower, it is the result of yesterday’s trading. U.S. oil price losses were initiated by significant drop in Japanese energy consumption and an increase in U.S. oil inventories to a 16-year high.
Tokyo said that domestic sales of oil products fell 20.1% in February from the same month a year earlier and the lowest level for any February since 1970.
According to U.S. Department of Energy oil inventories rose last week by 2.8 mln.b to 359.4mln.b, the highest level since mid-1993 and above Wall Street’s forecast.
Also gasoline inventories rose 2.2mln. to 216.8 mln. barrels and distillates rose 300 kb to 144.2mln.b. Both increases were larger than markets expected.
China's fuel oil imports likely fell 30% to about 1.62 mln.t in March from February, as high stockpiles accumulated ahead of the Jan. 1 fuel tax hike continued to weigh on the market, industry sources said on Thursday. Compared to the same month a year ago, March import volumes were likely to have declined 19%.
OPEC oil supply fell in March, for a seventh consecutive month, but remained above its target as some members of the group pumped more than agreed levels, a Reuters survey showed. Supply from the 11 OPEC members bound by output targets declined to 25.72 mln.b/d from a revised 25.83 mln.b/d in February, according to the survey of oil firms, OPEC officials and analysts.
Iraq's oil ministry has approved nine international oil companies to participate in the country's second post-war bid round after receiving 38 bids. As well as these nine companies, the 35 IOCs approved for the first bid round, launched in mid-2008, will also be invited to participate in the second bid round. The second bid round contains 11 field groups with 16 oil fields, and the successful bids are expected to be announced by the end of the year.
A plunge in oilfield spending means non-OPEC oil output could soon fall, raising prices and potentially derailing any global economic recovery. A growing number of forecasts predicting a fall reflect a major drop in oil drilling because of lower crude prices and tighter credits. Norwegian StatoilHydro expects the oil industry's investment spending to continue to decline in 2010 if oil prices remain steady around current levels, its CEO told yesterday. Norway's oil regulator has voiced concern that once ongoing projects are completed, investment spending on the Norwegian shelf could sharply fall in 2010 after oil prices tumbled to around $50.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Tuesday said the entrance of Brazil and other independent oilproducing countries in OPEC would invigorate the cartel. Brazil produced 1.99 mln.b/d of oil and natural gas liquids in the fourth quarter 2008, according to state-led Petrobras.
