Saudi Arabia's ability to avert a global oil supply crunch will only become clear in a few weeks, because for now its crude held in storage can fill the gap and mask the scale of damage to its facilities, traders and analysts say. Riyadh says production will be back to normal levels in two to three weeks, which means restoring output to about 10 million barrels per day (bpd), after Saturday's attacks on two sites that usually process and clean up about 5.7 million bpd. While it carries out [Read more]
Alberta sees progress on talks to ease oil curtailments
Premier Jason Kenney said on Wednesday he is hopeful of more progress this month on talks between his government and producers about easing oil curtailments, as long as extra output is shipped by rail. Alberta introduced mandatory production curtailments, effective Jan. 1 2019, to ease congestion on export pipelines and support crude prices. Last month Premier Jason Kenney's government extended those curtailments into 2020 because of slow progress in building new pipelines. Major producers [Read more]
Oil extends declines after Saudi pledge to restore lost output
Oil prices retreated on Wednesday, extending the previous day’s declines after Saudi Arabia said it would quickly restore full production following last weekend’s attacks on its facilities. Tension in the Middle East remained elevated, however, after Saudi Arabia said it would provide evidence on Wednesday linking Iran to the attacks. The United States had already said it believed the attacks against the world’s top oil exporter originated in southwestern Iran. Iran has denied involvement [Read more]
Minnesota court declines to review Enbridge Line 3 pipeline approval
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear environmental and tribal challenges to Enbridge Inc’s Line 3 oil pipeline, a decision that removes one potential obstacle for the already-delayed project. The ruling means the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), the state regulator that approved the Line 3 project last year, will not have to consider additional environmental issues. Line 3 is part of Enbridge’s Mainline network that transports western Canadian oil to Midwest [Read more]
Oil plummets 6% as Saudi says oil production fully restored
Oil prices dropped about 6% on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said the kingdom has fully restored its oil production hit by an attack this weekend that shut 5% of global oil output. Saturday’s attacks raised the specter of a major supply shock in a market that in recent months has been preoccupied with demand concerns and faltering global growth. Oil surged as much as 20% at one point on Monday. During a news conference on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister also said it [Read more]
Saudi Arabia’s oil supply fully back online -energy minister
Saudi Arabia's oil supply is fully back online after weekend attacks halved output and the kingdom will achieve 11 million barrels per day (bpd) capacity by the end of September and 12 million bpd by the end of November, the energy minister said on Tuesday. Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman also told a press conference that oil production in October would be 9.89 million bpd and that the world's top oil exporter would keep full oil supplies to customers this month. He said Saudi Arabia [Read more]
Oil falls more than 1% as market awaits response to Saudi oil attacks
Oil fell more than 1% on Tuesday as the market hung on tenterhooks following attacks on Saudi Arabian crude facilities that cut the kingdom's production in half and sent prices soaring by the most in decades.The attack heightened uncertainty in a market that had become relatively subdued in recent months due to slowing growth as the U.S.-China trade war rages and now faces the loss of crude from Saudi Arabia, usually the supplier of last resort. A gauge of oil-market volatility on Monday [Read more]
How the Saudi attack affects global oil supply
The strike on the heartland of Saudi Arabia's oil industry, including damage to the world's biggest petroleum-processing facility, has driven oil prices to their highest level in nearly four months. Here are some facts about the impact on oil supply and spare capacity: WHY IS IT SO DISRUPTIVE FOR GLOBAL OIL SUPPLIES? The attack on Saudi oil facilities on Saturday not only knocked out over half of the country's production, it also removed almost all the spare capacity available to [Read more]
Oil prices surge 15% after attack on Saudi facility hits global supply
Oil prices surged more than 15% at the open on Sunday after an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities on Saturday that knocked out more than 5% of global oil supply. Brent crude futures jumped more than 19% to a session high of $71.95 a barrel at the opening, while U.S. crude futures surged more than 15% to a session high of $63.34 a barrel. State oil giant Saudi Aramco said the attack cut output by 5.7 million barrels per day, at a time when Aramco is trying to ready itself for what [Read more]
Attacks on Saudi facilities threaten spare oil capacity, price hikes
Saturday's attacks on key Saudi Arabia processing plants will test the world's ability to handle a supply crisis as it faces the temporary loss of more than 5% of global supply from the world's biggest crude exporter. The Iranian-backed Houthis group in Yemen claimed responsibility for attacks that shut two plants at the Abqaiq facility, the heart of the Saudi oil industry, which will cut the kingdom's production by about 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), more than half of [Read more]