Archive for ‘OPEC’

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17/03/2020

Exclusive: India plans to top up strategic tanks with cheap Saudi, UAE oil – sources

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India plans to take advantage of low prices for oil from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to top up its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Global oil prices have fallen around 40% in March as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has destroyed demand, while supplies are growing following Moscow’s refusal to back deeper output cuts at a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its OPEC+ allies.

Leading OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi have said they will increase output while cutting prices, giving big consumers the chance to fill up at discounted prices.

“It is an opportune time for us and for them (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Saudi Aramco) to finalize the deals and fill the SPRs…If there is any delay, we might fill the SPRs on our own,” said an official familiar with the matter, asking not to be named.

A second source, who also requested anonymity, said the oil ministry has written to the finance ministry to release about 48-to-50 billion rupees ($673.7 million) to buy oil in 8-9 very large crude carriers for filling the storage.

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) and India’s oil and finance ministry had no immediate comment, while ADNOC and Saudi Aramco declined to comment.

India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, imports about 80% of its oil needs and has built strategic storage at three locations in southern India to store up to 36.87 million barrels of oil or about 5 million tonnes to protect against supply disruption.

ISPRL, a company charged with building of strategic storage, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC for the lease of half of its 2.5 million tonnes Padur facility.

Last year it signed an MoU with Saudi Aramco for the lease of a quarter of Padur SPR.

The leases allow the national oil companies to store their oil, some of which will cater for India’s strategic needs, while they can sell the rest to Indian refiners.

Padur has four compartments that hold about 4.6 million barrels each. The ISPRL has received 1 VLCC with Arab Mix to fill one compartment and will get a second VLCC in April, a third source said.

The ISPRL has already leased half of the 1.5 million tonnes capacity in Mangalore storage to ADNOC, which has stored about 5.5 million barrels of Das oil in the cavern, while ISPRL has retained the remainder.

“This is the right time to fill the SPRs before prices start moving up,” a third source said.

India has also filled its 1.03 million tonnes Vizag facility with Basra oil from another OPEC producer Iraq.

While India is primarily taking advantage of low prices as a consumer nation, U.S. President Donald Trump aimed to help U.S. energy producers struggling to cope with the price fall by announcing he would take advantage of low prices to fill up the nation’s emergency reserve.

Source: Reuters

Posted in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, ADNOC, cheap, India, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL), Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), OPEC, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), plans, Saudi Arabia, strategic, strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), tanks, The United Arab Emirates, top up, U.S. President Donald Trump, Uncategorized, VLCC | Leave a Comment »

12/02/2019

Trade talk hopes and shutdown deal buoy stocks

LONDON (Reuters) – World shares and bond yields rode a renewed surge in risk appetite on Tuesday, as investors were optimistic about U.S.-China trade talks and cheered Washington’s deal to avoid another government shutdown.

Tokyo’s Nikkei set the tone with its best day of the year so far and Europe wasted little time in trying to lift the STOXX 600 back to the two-month high it set last week.

Germany’s DAX jumped more than 1.2 percent, after rising 1 percent on Monday, and Paris and Milan were up 0.8 percent, while London’s FTSE approached a four-month peak despite ongoing Brexit uncertainty.

The dollar hovered at a two-month high and the Australian dollar also gained. The yen and Swiss franc dipped while U.S. Treasury and German bund yields edged up as investors jettisoned safe havens.

“We have had two bits of relatively good news overnight – optimism about the U.S. shutdown not resuming and optimism about a trade deal,” said Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes.

“Equities are higher, bond yields are a little bit higher, yen and Swiss franc weakest overnight of the major currencies so it’s sort of risk-on rules OK!”

Juckes said he reckoned there was now a 75 percent chance that a ratcheting up of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods at the start of March will be avoided and a 95 percent chance that another U.S. government shutdown will be dodged.

Those odds got a boost on Monday after U.S. lawmakers reached a tentative deal on border security funding, though aides cautioned that it did not contain the $5.7 billion President Donald Trump wants to build a wall on the Mexican border.

S&P 500 e-mini futures were up nearly 0.5 percent, pointing to a solid start on Wall Street later after a choppy day on Monday.

U.S. and Chinese officials expressed hopes the new round of talks, which began in Beijing on Monday, would bring them closer to easing their months-long trade war.

Beijing and Washington are trying to hammer out a deal before a March 1 deadline, without which U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are scheduled to increase to 25 percent from 10 percent.

“There will be no winner in a trade war. So at some point they will likely strike a deal,” said Mutsumi Kagawa, chief global strategist at Rakuten Securities in Tokyo.

BIG IN JAPAN

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.3 percent.

Shanghai rose 0.35 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI climbed 0.6 percent and Australian shares gained 0.3 percent.

The Nikkei rallied though, shooting up 2.6 percent after closing on Friday at its lowest level since early January. The Tokyo market was closed on Monday.

With the yen backtracking again, shares of exporters such as automakers and machinery makers led the charge. Separately, Deutsche Bank noted it was 20 years since Japan cut interest rates to zero, something now standard in large parts of Europe.

The dollar held firm, having gained for eight straight sessions against a basket of six major currencies until Monday, its longest rally in two years.

Although the Federal Reserve’s dovish turn dented the dollar earlier this month, some analysts noted the U.S. currency still has the highest yield among major peers and that the Fed continues to shrink its balance sheet.

Wall St wavers as investors eye trade talks, growth fears

“The dollar is the market’s pet currency at present regardless of whether concerns about the global economy are on the rise,” currency strategists at Commerzbank said in a note.

The dollar popped up to a six-week high of 110.65 yen. In contrast, the euro dropped to as low as $1.1267, its weakest in 2-1/2 months, and last traded at $1.1277.

In commodity markets, oil prices also ticked up as traders weighed support from OPEC-led supply restraint and a slowdown in the global economy.

U.S. crude futures traded at $52.68 per barrel, up 0.5 percent. Brent crude rose 0.6 percent to $61.89 per barrel. Gold was a touch stronger at $1,312 an ounce.

Source: Reuters

Posted in barrel, Beijing, Brent Crude, buoy stocks, China alert, Federal Reserve, Kit Juckes, KOSPI, Mutsumi Kagawa, Nikkei, OPEC, Rakuten Securities, shutdown deal, Société Générale, South Korea, strategist, Tokyo, trade talks, Uncategorized, US crude, Wall Street, Washington | Leave a Comment »

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