Oil Prices ///
The largest gasoline pipeline in the U.S. is returning to service following a cyberattack that took the fuel artery offline for five days, offering hope that fuel shortages in several states will soon come to an end.
Rising global oil prices are translating into shortages at the pump in cash-strapped Lebanon, with motorists lining up for hours to fill their tanks in the latest blow to living standards in the Middle Eastern nation.
U.S. average gasoline prices exceeded $3 a gallon for the first time in more than six years amid growing shortages of fuel across the South and East while Colonial Pipeline remains out of action due to a cyberattack.
Motorists across a broad swath of the U.S. East Coast and South are struggling to find gasoline and diesel as filling stations run dry amid the unprecedented pipeline disruption caused by a criminal hack.
The shutdown of America’s largest fuel pipeline after a cyberattack is threatening to send gasoline prices to the highest in seven years as suppliers work to stave off shortages from Atlanta to New York with tankers and barges.
Oil posted a gain this week as expectations for growing economic activity in nations from the U.S. to Europe fueled optimism around stronger summer demand.
Oil advanced to the highest in over a month as a combination of declining U.S. petroleum product supplies and signs of stronger demand buttressed expectations for a revival in global consumption.
Oil rose to the highest intraday in a week as expectations strengthened for a revival in global consumption despite the resurgent pandemic in India and Brazil.
OPEC and its allies recommended proceeding with plans to gently revive oil production as global demand recovers from the pandemic, despite surging infections in India.
A sustained uptick in commodity prices on the back of a recovering global economy is set to bolster a turnaround in industry fundamentals over the coming 12 to 18 months.
Futures in New York rose the most in over a week on Friday, but were unable to reverse a 1.6% weekly loss as the market weighed a global economic reopening that’s coming in fits and starts.
West Texas Intermediate slipped 0.6% following a 2.1% decline on Wednesday, when U.S. government data showed the first increase in crude stockpiles in a month. In India, coronavirus cases have topped 300,000 a day, the biggest jump globally, endangering consumption.
“If nothing extraordinary happens, we have already formed our three-month plans,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday, “Our task will be to look at these plans and maybe confirm or adjust them - yet most likely, this is the meeting to assess the current situation,” he said.
Demand for crude will increase by 7 million to 8 million barrels a day by the end of 2022, up from current levels, and producers will be stretched to meet that surge, Vitol Chief Executive Officer Russell Hardy said in an interview.
Oil’s forward curve suggests growing confidence, with the spread between WTI’s contracts for December this year and 2022 at the widest backwardation in about a month. Yet there are still reasons to be cautious, with India suffering a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and refiners there starting to curb processing.
Shale, and not the pandemic, was responsible for the initial oil-market crash of 2020, Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield said at an industry summit. He added that the cartel, frustrated at U.S. producers’ success in taking market share from OPEC, allowed prices to tumble.
The bank brought forward its forecast for peak oil demand in the transportation sector by one year to 2026, if not sooner, largely due to the accelerating adoption of electric vehicles. Overall crude consumption will keep expanding this decade due to jet fuel and petrochemicals, but growth will be at an “anemic” pace past 2025.
The pick-up in activity across the key Asian market comes amid a flurry of signs that global oil consumption is improving as economies including the U.S. shake off the impact of the pandemic. So far in 2021, Brent futures have soared 30%, and last traded near $67 a barrel.
A U.S. government report showed domestic crude inventories fell by 5.89 million barrels last week, the biggest decline in two months, bringing nationwide supplies to the lowest since late February. A gauge for gasoline demand ticked higher for a seventh straight week.
The International Energy Agency boosted estimates for this year’s growth in oil consumption by 230,000 barrels a day to 5.7 million a day amid a stronger outlook for the U.S. and China. That puts the world on track to recover about two-thirds of the demand lost last year.