U.S. oilfield services firm Weatherford International said on Wednesday that oilfield activity in Mexico has normalized and it was starting to get paid after a new financial mechanism helped raise funds for state-run energy company Pemex to pay its suppliers after long delays. Oilfield service companies had significantly reduced activities amid Pemex's accumulation of billions of dollars in pending payments to contractors and providers in recent years. A payment mechanism approved by the [Read more]

A lockout at BP's 440,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Whiting, Indiana, enters its second month as the British oil major and hundreds of union workers remain at odds. BP locked out about 800 workers represented by the United Steelworkers union on March 19, after months of negotiations failed to produce a new labor contract. The Whiting facility is the largest refinery in the Midwest and a major supplier of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. It has continued to operate during the lockout after [Read more]

Safe and sustainable passage through the Strait of Hormuz is what top shipping companies require before the world's sees much oil or cargo leave or enter the Gulf, two top sector executives said on Wednesday. "Two weeks ago when the ceasefire, said to be temporary, came into picture, we thought there was hope. But in reality, the agreement was not translated into the safety and passage (of the vessels)," Jotaro Tamura, chief executive of Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, told Reuters in an [Read more]

U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 1.9 million barrels to 465.7 million barrels in the week ended April 17, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel draw. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 806,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said. Refinery crude runs fell by 55,000 barrels per day [Read more]

Traders placed a series of bets worth $430 million on a drop in crude prices just 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump said he would extend a ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday. It is the third time this month, and the fourth in total, that large, well-timed directional bets on the oil price have been made shortly before major announcements on the Iran war. One combined wager in March was worth $500 million, while April's bets have together totalled some $2.1 billion. * Between 1954 [Read more]

Asian ship owners might begin to sail through the Strait of Hormuz soon amid a fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire as they have a higher risk tolerance and can manage paying tolls unlike sanctions-complying Western firms, shipping executives said. Hundreds of tankers and other ships have been stuck inside the Middle East Gulf unable to cross the strait since the end of February, hitting global oil and liquefied gas supply in the world's largest ever energy supply disruption. Some tankers and cargo [Read more]

Japan Petroleum Exploration said on Wednesday it plans to quadruple its oil and gas output over the next decade, investing 1.16 trillion yen ($7.3 billion) in exploration and production, mainly in the United States. The company, which recently acquired Verdad Resources Intermediate Holdings for $1.3 billion in its largest-ever deal, will allocate more than half of its 1.1 trillion yen overseas E&P budget to the United States, President Michiro Yamashita said. "We expect more than half [Read more]

While oil demand destruction deepens with each passing day the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the longer-term impact of the Iran war may paradoxically work in oil’s favour. Spiking energy security concerns and greater fragmentation could lead to a less efficient, more voracious global energy system. Aggregate worldwide oil consumption is plummeting under the strain of the Iran war, which has reduced global crude supplies by 13 million barrels per day (bpd), or 12%, since the conflict broke out [Read more]