Oil prices rose on Tuesday with revived U.S. sanctions against major crude exporter Iran expected to tighten global supply. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were up 59 cents at $69.60 a barrel and Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were up 86 cents to $74.61 per barrel at 6.52 a.m. ET. A first batch of U.S. sanctions against Iran, which shipped out almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in July, officially came into effect at 12:01 a.m. U.S. Eastern time (0401 GMT) on [Read more]
U.S. oil drillers cut rigs for second week in three
Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S. energy companies this week cut oil rigs for a second time in the past three weeks as the rate of growth has slowed over the past couple of months with recent declines in crude prices. Drillers cut two oil rigs in the week to Aug. 3, bringing the total count down to 859, General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. The U.S. rig count, an early indicator of future output, is higher than a year ago when 765 rigs [Read more]
Oil prices pull back as trade tensions weigh on market
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude futures pulled back on Friday, giving up gains from the previous session as trade concerns weighed on the market and fueled concerns about demand. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 75 cents at $68.21 a barrel by 12:08 p.m. EDT. Brent crude futures were at $73.05 per barrel, down 40 cents from their last close. Both grades briefly traded down more than $1 a barrel. U.S. crude is on track to end the week down 0.2 percent, while Brent has [Read more]
Hundreds line up for gushing West Texas oil jobs
ODESSA, TEXAS (Reuters) - Job fairs are stocked with people hungry for better opportunities, but inside the MCM Grande Hotel in Odessa, Texas, oil services giant Halliburton is the one doing the wooing. “We need to hire you is our message,” said Chris Redman, a field services manager with Summit ESP, which Halliburton acquired last year. More than 500 men and women flocked to the hotel in Odessa, Texas, on a Thursday last month to be courted by Halliburton, which needs people to handle [Read more]
Canada crude differential seen staying high as refiners take downtime
The discount on Canada's heavy crude, which reached a nearly five-year high this week, looks to remain elevated with pipelines strained and the refiners who buy it going offline for maintenance, industry officials say. Western Canada Select (WCS) oil traded on Tuesday for $34.15 per barrel less than West Texas Intermediate light oil , the biggest differential since November 2013, according to Shorcan Energy Brokers. The differential reduces the benefits of otherwise recovering global [Read more]
Canada to soften carbon tax as firms fret about U.S. competition
Canada will soften the impact of a planned carbon tax on major emitters of greenhouse gases after businesses complained it would make them less competitive with the United States, officials said on Wednesday. The move underlines the challenges facing Canada as it tries to deal with Washington under U.S. President Donald Trump, who has slashed domestic corporate taxes and imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - which took [Read more]
U.S. sees little impact from Keystone XL pipeline’s planned route
The Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project cleared a hurdle on Monday as the Trump administration said in a draft environmental assessment that an alternative route through Nebraska would not do major harm to water and wildlife. The State Department's assessment of a plan for an alternative route through Nebraska submitted by TransCanada Corp , the company trying to complete the pipeline, said Keystone XL's cumulative effects would be "minor to moderate" on issues including water and [Read more]
Phillips 66 ‘maxed out’ on Canadian heavy crude oil -CEO
Phillips 66 is running all the heavy Canadian crude oil the independent refiner can handle at its U.S. refineries and will not seek additional supply from a new pipeline, Chief Executive Greg Garland said on Friday. "We're bringing over 500,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude in today," Garland said during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. "So we're the largest importer of Canadian crude. We're probably running at about 80 percent of it or so, I would guess. So we're kind of maxed [Read more]
U.S. drillers add oil rigs for first week in three
U.S. energy companies this week added oil rigs for the first time in the past three weeks as drillers follow though on plans to spend more on exploration and production in anticipation of higher crude prices in 2018 than recent years. That move higher came despite recent declines in U.S. crude prices , which are on track to fall for a fourth week in a row this week on worries trade tensions between the U.S., China and Europe could hurt oil demand. Drillers added three oil rigs in the week [Read more]
U.S. crude inventories slump 6 million barrels to Feb 2015 low: EIA
(Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories last week tumbled more than expected to their lowest level since 2015 as exports jumped and stocks at the Cushing hub dropped, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell 6.1 million barrels in the week to July 20, compared with analysts’ expectations for a decrease of 2.3 million barrels. At 404.9 million barrels, inventories, not including the nation’s emergency petroleum reserve, were at their lowest level since [Read more]