The Energy Bulletin Weekly will be on hiatus for a couple months while our erstwhile editor, Tom Whipple, scales back his work while recuperating from a medical procedure. We ask that you respect his privacy and not contact him during this time. (The Energy Bulletin Daily will continue to be published.)
Prices climbed to a seven-week high as supply constraints from OPEC+ to North America offset concerns about the impact of a Covid-19 outbreak in China. Futures in New York rose 2.1% to the highest closing price since Nov. 16th and traded above $80 a barrel during Friday’s session. A deep freeze in Canada and the northern U.S. is disrupting oil flows, boosting prices just as American stockpiles decline. Output from OPEC+ member Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz oil field has been temporarily adjusted amid unrest in the Central Asian country. A growing premium for prompt barrels suggests that supply troubles across the OPEC+ coalition — which was able to provide only part of last month’s planned production increase — are delaying the onset of an anticipated oversupply in global markets.
Prices jumped more than 1% on the first trading day of the new year ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Tuesday to discuss production policy. Futures in New York topped $76 a barrel after toggling between gains and losses earlier. Libyan output is expected to decline to the lowest level in more than a year as workers try and fix a damaged pipeline less than two weeks after militia shut down its biggest field.
