Author: Tom Whipple

Oil prices climbed a bit on Monday, fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then surged upwards on Thursday and Friday after the Saudi energy minister said his country would be willing to discuss rebalancing the oil market. The minister said Saudi Arabia would “take any action to help” the crude market and will discuss the issue at a meeting in Septmber. Coupled with an EIA forecast that foresees a “sustained tightening” of the crude markets and a reduction in product stocks, New York futures prices now have climbed from below $40 a barrel early in the month to a close of $44.49 on Friday. The IEA says that a combination of falling production and increasing demand, which will be up by 1.4 million b/d in 2016, means that there will be no oversupply in the second half of this year. The Agency believes that refinery processing of crude is now down about 500,000 b/d year over year and projects that production in North and South America alone will be down by 700,000 b/d in the third quarter.

Oil prices fell steadily during July as the realities of oversupply trumped traders’ hopes that there would be balanced markets and higher prices later this year. July opened with London trading just below $51 a barrel and New York around $49.50. By month’s end, London was down to $42.71 and New York to $40.74. The month’s trading was dominated by reports of increasing oil product inventories and higher OPEC production. The decline of nearly $10 a barrel naturally has had repercussions across the oil industry. For most of July, the US rig count was growing as drillers anticipated that crude prices would soon be at a level where more wells would be profitable. By month’s end, however, these hopes had been dashed, and the US oil rig count had nearly stopped growing.

Concerns are rising that the predictions of the oil markets coming back into balance later this year are wrong and that lower oil prices are ahead. Oil production is not falling as fast as predicted. Some outages are coming to a close and the growing glut of oil products could be as bad as last year’s crude glut. Many analysts now are talking about prices falling below $40 in the next few months and a few are even talking about a return to the $30 level. Although US crude stocks have been falling of late, the growth in the inventories of refined products continues to grow. Europe is running out of storage space for refined products which would force a cut in refining and result in lower demand for crude. Increased refining to support the summer driving season in the US has only another few weeks to run before the increased demand for gasoline comes to an end. The US oil rig count was up for the 6th time in 7 weeks and North Dakota reported that its oil production increased slightly in May.

Futures fell about $4 a barrel during the holiday-shortened US trading week closing at $45.41 in New York and $46.44 in London. Prices edged down early in the week, recovered a bit on Wednesday, and the plunged after the EIA reported that the US crude inventory had dropped by only 2.2 million barrels as opposed to the 6.7-million-barrel drop that the API came up with after their weekly survey. The weekly decline for Brent was the largest since January.

The oil markets remained volatile last week, trading around $48-50 a barrel, amidst much uncertainty about the future of crude prices. In the wake of the Brexit vote, analysts are all over the board as to where prices will be by the end of the year. Some are talking about $85 a barrel while others are looking for a retreat to less than $30 again. Nearly all agree that the markets will “rebalance” with supply and demand coming together as demand increases and the supply continues to drop as the impact of the much lower investment levels during the last two years reduces supply. For the next six months, however, there is uncertainty especially concerning the spate of unplanned outages that have taken place in the past few months. Oil worker strikes such as in France and Norway likely will be settled quickly, and Alberta tar sands production will soon be back to normal by the end of the summer. The outages in Libya, Nigeria, and Venezuela, however, are more uncertain and seem to be getting worse rather than better in the immediate future.

The vote in Britain to pull out of the EU came as a surprise as most observers were expecting the referendum would fail. Oil prices fell immediately and after some gyrations settled down about $2.50 a barrel at $47.64 in New York and $47.54 in London.

The ramifications of the British vote for the oil markets will take years to work out, and many believe it will lead to a series of international realignments with other countries pulling out of the EU and possibly even the secession of Scotland and Northern Ireland from the UK. Conventional wisdom currently holds that Britain’s withdrawal from the EU will lead to lower economic growth in the EU, UK, and possibly other countries.

Oil prices dropped for six straight trading sessions before rebounding on Friday to close at $47.98 in New York and $49.17 in London but both markets were down for the week. Trading was dominated by polls showing that Britain may vote to leave the EU this week sparking financial turmoil and slower economic growth. These fears resulted in a stronger US dollar which in turn drove oil prices lower. Running counter to these pressures were an IEA forecast that the global supply/demand would be back in balance by the end of the year; production outages in Libya, Canada, and Nigeria; and concerns that the deteriorating situation in Venezuela could soon limit oil production and exports.

Oil prices remained firm last week amidst continuing reports concerning actual or impending supply disruptions. US futures dipped below $50 a barrel on Friday, to close at $49.83, but analysts are expecting further gains as the impact of more disruptions are felt. Higher oil prices have encouraged a small revival of drilling activity with the US rig count up slightly for the second week in a row.

Oil prices hovered just below the $50 level last week with Brent closing just above $50 on Thursday before settling at $49.46 on Friday. As has been the case lately, there were numerous factors pressuring oil prices one way or another. The week opened with much enthusiasm that OPEC would agree to a production freeze, but this went away when the OPEC meeting failed to take any action. The major factor pushing prices higher last week was the unplanned production outages in Alberta, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Although the fires are now well past the Alberta tar sands, it will be several weeks before the 1 million b/d of production that had to be shut down during the firestorms can return fully to production. In the meantime, the Alberta outage and the one in Nigeria have likely removed much or all of the production surplus that has overhung the markets and for now, there may be a rough balance of supply and demand.

Oil briefly traded above $50 a barrel last week but quickly fell back to close at $49.33 in NY and $49.32 in London on profit taking and uncertainties about the status of the global oil glut. For the past two months, oil prices have been driven higher by a series of unplanned production outages in Kuwait, Libya, Canada, Nigeria, and concerns about the political stability of Venezuela. Currently, about 3.5 million b/d of normal production is offline. While some of these outages, such as the 1 million b/d fire-caused drop in tar sands production, will be short-lived, other situations such as in Nigeria, Libya, and Nigeria could last indefinitely.

Last week began on a bullish tone with oil prices climbing to a seven-month high, Goldman Sachs talking about the end of the oil glut, and columnists predicting a new spike in prices. All this optimism was based on solid Chinese oil imports, strong US gasoline demand, and production outages in Alberta, Nigeria, Libya and Venezuela. As the week moved on, however, the market became less optimistic as US, European, and Asian crude stocks continued to rise, and prices failed to break through the $50 a barrel barrier.

Oil prices continued to climb last week with New York futures closing up 3.5 percent, the tenth weekly increase in the past 13 and closing Friday at $46.21. Similarly, London prices were up 5.4 percent to close at $47.83. Forces that move the oil markets keep coming in and out of existence. Hopes that the major exporters would agree to freeze production have now faded, to be replaced by unexpected production outages in several countries as the principal force driving prices higher.