Trading in crude oil options and futures surged last week as market participants prepared for Mexico's annual oil hedging program, in which the country buys as much as $1 billion in contracts to protect its oil revenues. The global oil derivatives market braces itself every year in late spring and summer for the hedge, the market's largest and most secretive financial oil deal. This year, Mexico has faced several challenges in executing the hedge and timing has become a crucial [Read more]

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had captured a British-flagged oil tanker in the Persian Gulf after Britain seized an Iranian vessel earlier this month, further raising tensions along a vital international oil shipping route. Iran's ambassador to Britain warned against escalating tensions on Sunday, a day ahead of an expected response from the UK which could include fresh sanctions on Tehran or other steps. Britain has called the capture of their ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday a [Read more]

U.S. energy firms this week reduced the number of oil rigs operating for a third week in a row as drillers follow through on plans to cut spending with oil prices declining amid a global supply glut. Drillers cut five oil rigs in the week to July 19, bringing the total count down to 779, the lowest since February 2018, General Electric Co's Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday. That compares with 858 rigs operating during the same week a year [Read more]

The International Energy Agency (IEA) doesn't expect oil prices to rise significantly because demand is slowing and there is a glut in global crude markets, its executive director said on Friday. "Prices are determined by the markets...If we see the market today we see that the demand is slowing down considerably," said IEA's Fatih Birol, in public comments made during a two-day energy conference in New Delhi. The IEA is revising its 2019 global oil demand growth forecast down to 1.1 [Read more]

U.S. spot natural gas prices this summer at the Henry Hub benchmark in Louisiana were on track to be the lowest since 1998 due to relatively mild weather in June, according to a forecast by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That cooler weather early in the summer led power generators to burn less gas than expected to keep air conditioners humming, which allowed utilities to inject more of the fuel into inventories for the winter heating season when demand peaks, EIA said in a [Read more]