- Oil heads for a weekly gain amid tight supply and resilient demand
- November ’23 WTI gained $1.26 this morning to trade around $92.96/Bbl and is on track for a weekly gain of nearly 3%
- Yesterday, prompt month WTI and Brent reached highs of $95.03/Bbl (highest since Aug ‘22) and $97.69/Bbl (highest since Nov ‘22), respectively, before finishing nearly $1 lower
- Currently, crude is set for its biggest quarterly gain since March 2022, with a surge of +30%, reflecting a constrained market
- Russian Deputy PM Novak said that Moscow is mulling an export quota on transportation fuels if last week’s export ban is not effective in bringing down domestic fuel prices (BBG)
- He has also instructed customs and tax services to control exports of fuel
- Additionally, as China observes its Golden Week holidays until next Friday, a spike in crude demand is expected due to increased domestic and international travel
- Meanwhile, Eurozone inflation dropped to a two-year low of 4.3% in September, indicating the European Central Bank's interest rate hikes are taking effect
- US refiners encounter heavier fall maintenance than expected (Bloomberg)
- US refinery maintenance for fall 2023 is on track to surpass expectations, with major refiners like Exxon, Motiva, and Shell starting turnarounds
- Currently, about 2.05 MMBbl of crude capacity is projected to go offline from September to December, slightly below 2.21 MMBbl in Fall 2022, according to Energy Aspects
- Maintenance schedules indicate outages of 0.43 MMBbl/d in September, 1.17 MMBbl/d in October, and 0.45 MMBbl/d in November, but unplanned disruptions could raise these numbers
- Biden Administration plans no offshore oil and gas lease sales for 2024 (Reuters)
- Biden's five-year offshore leasing plan omits sales in 2024, setting a record for the fewest auctions in program history, reported Reuters, citing unnamed sources
- The delayed leasing schedule for 2024-2028, spanning the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, follows contentious discussions between environmentalists and drilling proponents
- Despite legal obligations, the Interior Department hasn't rolled out a new leasing schedule since the last one concluded in June 2022
- The upcoming plan indicates only three lease sales from 2025-2028, a steep drop from the usual 11 to 20 sales seen since 1992