Discounts on Iranian crude oil sold to China are at their tightest in around five years as lower exports drive up prices amid concerns that Middle East tensions may disrupt supply, trading sources said. The discounts are the narrowest since Chinese independent refiners, known as teapots, stepped in as buyers in late 2019, filling a vacuum left by the country's state refiners wary of sanctions reinstated on Iran by the United States a year earlier. Higher prices or a reduction in Iranian [Read more]

Investors ramped up oil futures and options trading in October to record levels in a bid to hedge growing uncertainty as war rages on in the Middle East and a bearish 2025 supply and demand outlook looms, triggering big swings in crude prices. Hedging can help producers reduce risk and protect their production from sharp moves in the market by locking in a price for the oil. It can also give traders opportunities to profit in times of volatility. Some 68.44 million barrels of oil in [Read more]

Oil prices traded in a narrow range on Tuesday ahead of what is expected to be an exceptionally close U.S. presidential election, after rising more than 2% in the previous session as OPEC+ delayed plans to hike production in December. Brent crude futures ticked up 14 cents, or 0.19%, to $75.22 a barrel by 0400 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $71.6 a barrel, up 13 cents, or 0.18%. "We are now in the calm before the storm," IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said. Oil [Read more]

OPEC oil output rebounded in October from its lowest this year the previous month as Libya resolved a political crisis, a Reuters survey found, although a further Iraqi effort to meet its cuts pledged to the wider OPEC+ alliance limited the gain. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 26.33 million barrels per day last month, up 195,000 bpd from September's total, the survey on Monday found, with Libya posting the largest gain. Libyan output recovered after the [Read more]

Oil prices rose by more than $1 in early trading on Monday after OPEC+ said on Sunday it would delay a planned December output hike by one month due to soft demand and rising supply outside the group. Brent futures rose by $1.18 per barrel, or 1.61%, to $74.28 a barrel by 0121 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose by $1.20 a barrel, or 1.73%, to $70.69. OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia and other allies, was due to increase [Read more]

Canada will on Monday unveil the details of its long-awaited plan to cap emissions of greenhouse gases from the oil and gas sector, an idea which the energy industry and some provinces strongly oppose. Canada said in December 2023 it wanted oil and gas companies to cut emissions up to 38% from 2019 levels by 2030 by introducing a cap-and-trade system, and would unveil its draft proposals before the end of 2024. A government announcement issued on Sunday said details of the draft plan would [Read more]

U.S. energy regulators rejected an amended interconnection agreement for an Amazon data center connected directly to a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, a filing showed on Friday. Members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the agreement to increase the capacity of the data center located on the site of Talen Energy's Susquehanna nuclear generating facility could raise power bills for the public and affect the grid's reliability. As Big Tech races to grow its data centers [Read more]