Oil prices retreated in early Asian trade on Tuesday, halting a run of eight straight days of gains on signs that a relentless rise in U.S. crude production was running out of steam. Brent crude futures were at $49.43 per barrel at 0147 GMT, down 25 cents, or 0.5 percent from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading down 22 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $46.85 a barrel. The falls came after both benchmarks recovered around 12 percent from their recent [Read more]
Oil prices rise on first drop in U.S. drilling in months
Oil markets edged up on Monday, lifted by the first fall in U.S. drilling activity in months, although price gains were capped by reports of rising OPEC output last month even as the group has pledged to cut supply. Brent crude futures had climbed 13 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $48.90 per barrel by 0643 GMT, after jumping 5.2 percent last week in their first weekly gain in six weeks. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 17 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $46.21 per barrel, adding [Read more]
Oil prices edge up on first drop in U.S. drilling in months
Oil prices edged up on Monday, supported by the first fall in U.S. drilling activity in months, although rising output from OPEC despite a pledge to cut supplies capped gains. Brent crude futures added 6 cents or 0.1 percent to $48.83 per barrel by 0137 GMT, after jumping 5 percent last week for the first gain in six weeks. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 15 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $46.19 per barrel after a more than 7 percent gain last week from depressed levels. [Read more]
U.S. oil drillers cut rigs for first week since January – Baker Hughes
U.S. oil drillers cut rigs this week for the first time since January and the pace of additions slowed this quarter due to declines in crude prices despite an OPEC-led effort to cut production and end a multi-year supply glut. Analysts, however, noted the weekly decline in the rig count was likely just a brief pause in a drilling recovery expected to continue through at least 2019. Drillers cut two oil rigs in the week to June 30, bringing the total rig count down to 756, still more than double [Read more]
Canadian producer prices drop for first time in nine months
Canadian producer prices in May fell for the first time in nine months, dropping by 0.2 percent from April on lower prices for energy and petroleum products, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a 0.3 percent increase. Of the 21 commodity groups, prices rose in 17, dropped in three and were unchanged in one. Prices for energy and petroleum products fell by 3.5 percent, dragged down by declines in motor gasoline, fuel oils and diesel fuel. Excluding this [Read more]
British Columbia government toppled in non-confidence vote
VICTORIA, British Columbia (Reuters) - British Columbia's Liberal government was defeated on Thursday in a non-confidence vote, as expected, paving the way for the left-leaning New Democrats to rule the Western Canadian province for the first time in 16 years. Such a prospect has unnerved investors in Canada's third-most populous province, not least owners of oil and gas projects such as Kinder Morgan Inc's C$7.4 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which the New Democratic Party (NDP) [Read more]
Canada says it wants single body to assess major energy projects
Canada wants a single federal authority to assess the potential impact of oil pipelines and mines, officials said on Thursday, a move that could help quell protests that have blocked a series of projects. Responsibility for examining the environmental impact of projects on federally-regulated land is shared between three separate entities, a system the Liberal government says the public does not trust. Plans released on Thursday mean the much-criticised national energy regulator would lose its [Read more]
Alberta hits $10.8 billion budget deficit in 2016-17
Canada's main crude-producing province Alberta ended the 2016-17 fiscal year with a $10.8 billion budget deficit, the government's annual report said on Thursday, as weak oil prices hurt the economy for a third consecutive year. That was C$263 million higher than forecast in the government's original 2016 budget. It reflects the impact of a huge wildfire in the Wood Buffalo region of the oil sands in May 2016 and payments related to the phase out of coal power in the province. The budget [Read more]
Oil prices rise to two-week high on dip in U.S. output
Oil prices rose to a two-week high on Thursday, extending a rally into a sixth straight session after a decline in weekly U.S. production eased concerns about deepening oversupply. Crude prices slipped to the lowest in 10 months last week but have since rebounded more than 7 percent, stretching their bull-run to the longest since April. Global benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 43 cents at $47.74 a barrel at 1321 GMT, having touched a two-week high of $47.98 earlier in the [Read more]
ING bank says it will not finance major Canadian pipeline projects
Dutch lender ING Groep NV has said it would not finance any of Canada's major pipeline projects, including TransCanada Corp's Keystone XL and Energy East and Enbridge Inc's Line 3, after pressure from activists. The move came after ING earlier this month publicly disavowed Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd's Trans Mountain expansion project, but did not name any other Canadian projects. While ING has a policy of not financing the extraction of oil sands globally, it had been unclear whether that [Read more]