Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
DOE cites rising oil prices as the reason for canceling the solicitations for oil deliveries to the Bayou Choctaw SPR site.
Biden administration's decision comes amidst concerns over market conditions and global production cuts impacting oil prices.
The cancellation raises questions about the U.S. energy strategy and the future of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's replenishment efforts.
Biden
Despite indicating they would refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by the end of this year, the Department of Energy has now canceled solicitations offered last month.
Citing rising oil prices, the DOE said, “We will not award the current solicitations for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and will solicit available capacity as market conditions allow.” Three million barrels of oil had been slated for delivery to the Bayou Choctaw SPR site in August and September.
The SPR is the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil. It was established primarily to reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products and to carry out obligations of the United States under the international energy program.
The SPR is maintained by the U.S. DOE and its oil stocks are stored in huge underground salt caverns at four sites along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. The size of the SPR (authorized storage capacity of 714 million barrels) makes it a significant deterrent to oil import cutoffs and a key tool in foreign policy.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden Administration made the largest withdrawal in SPR history to curb the oil price spikes that happened in the wake of the invasion. The DOE has consistently promised to refill the SPR as market conditions allow.
One of the 2024 energy predictions I made in January had been “The Biden Administration won’t replace more than 10% of the oil removed from the SPR since Biden was inaugurated.”
The reasoning behind the prediction was that in election years, presidents have tended to withdraw from the SPR to prevent rising oil prices leading up to the election.
My prediction concluded with “By the time the summer driving season and the change to summer gasoline blends arrives in May, I think the SPR purchases will be suspended.”
The DOE added, “As always, we monitor market dynamics to remain nimble and innovative in our successful replenishment approach to protect this critical national security asset.” However, with production cuts in Saudi Arabia and Russia starting to impact the market, it is unlikely that there will be significant oil price relief ahead of the election. Thus, we will likely go into the election with the SPR at the current significantly depleted level.
Https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/fed-decision-heres-what-changed-in-the-new-statement.html
Https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/fed-meeting-today-live-updates-on-may-fed-rate-decision.html
Jeroen blokland
@jsblokland
BREAKING! The #FederalReserve keeps rates unchanged. AND cuts Treasury balance sheet reduction to USD 25 billion. Like #Powell told everyone at the last #FOMC meeting, the Fed likes its balance sheet BIG!
Webcast details
bp's first quarter 2024 results will be released at 7am BST/2am EDT on Tuesday 7 May.
Murray Auchincloss, chief executive officer and Kate Thomson, chief financial officer will host a question and answer session from 1pm BST/8am EDT to 2pm BST/9am EDT (approx).
Date
Tuesday 7 May
Time
1 – 2pm BST / 8 – 9am EDT (approx.)
Refining capacity in Russia that was offline due to drone attacks was estimated by Reuters in mid-April at around 660,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared to 907,000 bpd offline at the end of March.
Russia said in early April it can repair all damaged units within two months.
Russia’s Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said that all damaged refineries in the country would be restarted by the beginning of June.
“Repairs are underway at the refineries. We plan to re-launch a number of refineries after repairs in April-May, possibly before the beginning of June,” Russian news agency Interfax quoted Shulginov as saying.
“All facilities that were damaged will be re-commissioned,” the minister added.
Just as Russia had started to bring back some refinery capacity damaged by Ukrainian drone attacks earlier this year, a new wave of drone attacks hit a major refinery owned by Rosneft, for a second time.
Rosneft’s Ryazan refinery southeast of Moscow caught fire after the overnight drone attack, an anonymous Ukrainian military source with knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg News on Wednesday.
The refinery in the region of Ryazan, whose main city of the same name is some 120 miles southeast of Moscow, was first attacked by drones in the middle of March. The first attack also led to a fire.
This year, Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil refineries in Russia, which have reduced Russian refining capacity, and, reportedly, have the White House concerned about rising international prices.
The United States has repeatedly urged Ukraine to halt its drone attacks on Russian oil refineries due to Washington’s assessment that the strikes could lead to Russian retaliation and push up global oil prices, the Financial Times reported in March, citing sources familiar with the exchange.
As of mid-April, Russia had brought back online some oil refining units, reducing the capacity taken offline by Ukrainian drone hits to around 10%, from 14% at the end of March.
The refining capacity in Russia that was offline due to drone attacks was estimated by Reuters in mid-April at around 660,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared to 907,000 bpd offline at the end of March
Https://www.livecharts.co.uk/MarketCharts/brent.php
meoryou excellent news
Julianne Geiger
JULIANNE GEIGER
Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group.
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Https://www.livecharts.co.uk/MarketCharts/brent.php
Out for the day
Onwards and Upwards:)))
So far this year, the global upstream oil and gas market has seen more than $64 billion in mergers and acquisitions, and the year could still see more mega-deals, according to the latest report from Rystad Energy on Monday.
While recent deals have focused on the Permian Basin, Rystad says it is looking to other American shale patch venues for the next big deals amid an ongoing trend of consolidation.
The $64 billion in global M&A value booked so far this year is the best Q1 performance the industry has seen since 2019. The $64 billion also represents a 145% jump in M&A dealmaking in the industry compared to the same quarter of last year. North American upstream M&A accounted for almost $54 billion this year, representing around 83% or the total value of deals so far this year, Rystad said, as reported by Reuters.
According to Rystad, North American upstream deals for the first quarter of this year came in at $54 in value, and $80 billion in North American oil and gas assets remain up for sale. Rystad estimates that the American shale patch will account for the bulk of new M&A activity.
“The Permian has been the focal point for M&A activity in recent times, but that focus is waning as available assets in the basin become scarce. But with appetite still strong, deal-hungry players are looking outside the basin for acquisitions. A power shift could be on the cards, with non-Permian assets taking center stage in the future North American deals pipeline,” Rystad Energy’s Atul Raina, Vice President of Upstream Research, said in a report.
Attention will now shift to Bakken, Marcellus and Haynesville assets, with key companies still looking to divest non-core assets, including Chevron, which is seeking to divest up to $15 billion in assets by 2028