Russia’s energy minister met with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf oil-producers to discuss steps to stabilize crude markets amid OPEC’s drive to win cooperation from the biggest supplier outside the group in limiting output to prop up prices.
Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates gathered in Riyadh for oil talks at the offices of the Gulf Cooperation Council secretariat. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak met with them later on Sunday for a separate round of talks and was expected to speak afterward at a news conference. Oman was the only one of the GCC’s six members not attending.
“Oil markets are on the way to being re-balanced,” Saudi Arabia’s Energy and Industry Minister Khalid Al-Falih said at the start of the GCC meeting. “Low oil prices are putting pressure on GCC countries’ development plans.” Russia was invited to attend the Gulf ministers’ talks, he said. “We are working with Russia and other oil producers to stabilize the market.”
Novak is set to meet representatives of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Monday in Vienna for talks that could include production cuts, and officials from Russia and Saudi Arabia will hold bilateral discussions later this month. While Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to cooperate with OPEC, he’s been vague about whether the country will trim output or just freeze production at September’s post-Soviet record.
OPEC is seeking to attract other producers to join the plan it agreed to last month at a meeting in Algeria to put into effect the group’s first output cuts in eight years. Crude plunged to a 12-year low in January, squeezing the budgets of producers from Venezuela to Saudi Arabia. The price slide led OPEC to abandon its two-year-old Saudi-led policy of allowing members to pump as much as they could in an effort to protect market share.
“We hope that they can reach an overall agreement on which Russia and other non-OPEC producers will join and cooperate with OPEC members,” Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters on Sunday in Tehran.
Iraq asked OPEC for an exemption from participation in any cuts, Oil Minister Jabber Al-Luaibi said Sunday at a news conference in Baghdad. He cited Iraq’s war against Islamic militants as the reason the country should be grouped with Iran and Nigeria as members not required to contribute to the collective cuts OPEC agreed on last month in Algeria.
Record Output
Russia is producing about 10.9 million barrels a day on average this year, according to Energy Ministry data. Officials have emphasized the nation’s ability to keep pumping; the latest draft of Russia’s energy strategy sees a potential increase in annual production from 534.1 million metric tons last year to 555 million tons, or 11.1 million barrels a day, by 2020.
OPEC’s 14 members pumped a record 33.75 million barrels a day in September, with the Saudis accounting for 10.58 million barrels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Output in Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer, fell short of the 10.66 million-barrel-a-day record in July, the data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, has gained almost 40 percent this year, trading at about $52 a barrel last week. OPEC is trying to determine which members will reduce their output and by how much, with details to be made final at the group’s Nov. 30 meeting.
Oil investors are playing it safe as OPEC hammers out the details of a deal to trim output.
Money managers reduced bets on falling prices to the lowest since May as oil held above $50 a barrel, prolonging a rally that began when the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries announced a deal to cut production to between 32.5 million and 33 million barrels a day. The group plans to finalize the agreement at a meeting in Vienna on Nov. 30.
«The shorts are not laughing off this OPEC deal anymore,» Phil Flynn, a market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said in a phone interview. «There’s a growing realization that there’s going to be a deal to lock in production. Things will be relatively calm until we get the agreements.»
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said Oct. 19 that many nations are willing to join OPEC in cutting production. So far, Russia has said it’s considering taking steps to stabilize the market. Alexander Novak, the country’s energy minister, said Sunday that «many scenarios» are being discussed. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, on a tour of oil-producing countries to boost support for the deal, said Oct. 21 he’s in favor of inviting the U.S. to the next OPEC meeting and creating an «alliance» of OPEC and non-OPEC nations.
“This week the market is in a pause after the run-up to $50,» said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts. «There’s still a lot of question about what OPEC is actually going to do next month. Absent that, people are waiting for some more direction than we have now.”
In addition to slashing short bets in West Texas Intermediate crude by 21 percent during the week ended Oct. 18, hedge funds also reduced their long positions by 3.2 percent from a two-year high, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Net longs increased to the highest in two years.
Oil Inventories
WTI slipped 1 percent during the report week to $50.29 a barrel. The U.S. benchmark rose 0.1 percent on Monday to $50.91 as of 9:41 a.m. London time. Prices reached a 15-month high on Oct. 19 after government data showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell to the lowest level since January.
U.S. stockpiles dropped 5.25 million barrels to 468.7 million in the week ended Oct. 14, according to the Energy Information Administration, after reaching 512.1 million in late April.
«$50 will be the floor through the OPEC meeting, barring some spike in the dollar,» Price Futures Group’s Flynn said. «With U.S. inventories falling at a rapid pace, the prospect of a cut or freeze has real consequences.»
In other markets, net-bullish bets on gasoline rose 9.4 percent to 40,085 contracts, the highest since March 2015, as futures climbed 1.5 percent in the report week. Ultra low sulfur diesel net-longs fell 7 percent to 8,439. Futures slipped 1.2 percent.
WTI held above $50 a barrel even as Russia’s energy minister said the country may produce a new oil-output record next year. As OPEC members head into technical meetings Oct. 28-29, investors will be watching for details on country allocations. Iraq should be exempted from cutting production, Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said Sunday.
«The market just wants to see the proof in the pudding,» said Carl Larry, director of oil and gas at consultant Frost & Sullivan in Houston. «We got to $50. That’s as good as it’s getting, going into the November election and the actual OPEC meeting.»
https://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/oilinvestors24oct2016-e1477360329348.jpg267400adminhttps://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-nrgi.svgadmin2026-05-11 19:29:172026-05-11 19:37:03Oil Investors Ease Back as Market Steadies Before OPEC Talks
Oil declined for a second day as OPEC’s internal disagreements undermined efforts among major suppliers to reach an agreement in Vienna on trimming output to support prices.
Futures fell as much as 1.1 percent in New York after sliding 2.1 percent at the end of last week. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ended a meeting on Friday without reaching a deal on country quotas, according to delegates who took part in the discussions. Non-OPEC nations finished talks with the group on Saturday without any supply commitments, Brazil’s Oil and Gas Secretary Marcio Felix said. Brazil attended as an observer.
Oil has fluctuated near $50 a barrel amid uncertainty over whether OPEC can implement the first supply cuts in eight years at its official November meeting. As the gathering opened in Vienna last week, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo warned of the consequences if producers don’t follow through on an agreement to reduce output. The price recovery has already taken far too long and suppliers can’t risk delaying it further, he said.
“Talks over the weekend make it seem less likely there will be an agreement on production cuts,” said Ric Spooner, a chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. “The market has probably made a fair bit of the adjustment, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see oil fall further into the $47 range.”
West Texas Intermediate for December delivery dropped as much as 53 cents to $48.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $48.44 at 2:48 p.m. in Singapore. The contract fell $1.02 to $48.70 on Friday. Total volume traded was about 4 percent above the 100-day average. Prices are set for a third monthly gain, up 0.4 percent in October.
OPEC Meeting
Brent for December settlement, which expires Monday, lost as much as 42 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $49.29 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange after falling 1.5 percent Friday. Front-month prices are up 0.7 percent this month. The global benchmark traded at a premium of $1 to WTI. The more-active January contract slid 27 cents to $50.41 a barrel.
OPEC agreed in Algiers last month to trim output to a range of 32.5 million to 33 million barrels a day and is due to finalize the deal at its Nov. 30 summit in Vienna. The accord helped push prices to a 15-month high above $50 a barrel earlier this month, although they have subsequently fallen amid doubts the group will follow through on the pledge. More than 18 hours of talks over two days in the Austrian capital this weekend yielded little more than a promise that the world’s largest producers would keep on talking.
Some progress was made at the Friday meeting on the methodology to be used for allocating output quotas to OPEC members, said one delegate, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. Russia reiterated that it’s willing to freeze production, rather than cut, but only if there is an OPEC agreement first, according to participants in Saturday’s meeting.
Oil-market news:
Iraq published data showing a rare level of detail for its oil production and exports as it seeks to be excluded from OPEC’s planned output cuts because of its war with Islamic militants.
Libyan crude production increased to 640,000 barrels a day, according to a National Oil Corp. official.
China’s oil output slump shows no signs of abating as the country’s state-run energy giants hold back spending amid the crash in prices.
Rigs targeting crude in the U.S. fell by 2 to 441 last week, according to data from Baker Hughes Inc. Friday.
Some of the world’s biggest oil companies, including Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell, pledged on Friday to invest $1 billion to develop climate-friendly technologies as a global deal to wean the world off oil came into force.
The Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), which also includes Total, BP, Eni, Repsol , Statoil, CNPC, Pemex and Reliance Industries, launched the Climate Investments fund which will invest in technologies to reduce carbon emissions but which will also help an increase gas use.
The companies pledged to use a large share of the $1 billion for speeding up carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) in gas-fired power plants and towards reducing leakages of methane, one of the most polluting greenhouse gases.
«If we can reduce and build the technologies to monitor and reduce fugitive methane emissions that’s like an essential licence for us to be able to advocate natural gas,» BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley told journalists.
The investment is nevertheless dwarfed by the joint annual spending of the member companies, even as they battle one of the longest downturns in the sector’s history. Shell, Total, BP, Statoil, Repsol and Eni are expected to spend nearly $100 billion in 2016.
The 10 firms, which jointly produce around 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas, have already screened a list of 200 CCUS-related technologies and are now assessing which one or ones to develop to commercial scale.
The group will also invest in improving efficiency in transport and energy-intensive industries.
The announcement coincides with the official coming into force of the 2015 Paris Agreement, intended to wean the world economy off coal, oil and gas in the second half of this century in order to slash carbon emissions.
The oil and gas sector, which is directly responsible for 5 percent of manmade greenhouse emissions and the use of its products for another 32 percent, is under growing pressure from investors and the general public to help fight climate change.
«If the CEOs of the 10 largest corporations meet six times during the year it’s not for philanthropy, it’s real business,» said Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive of Total.
Critics have said oil companies need to do more to reduce emissions and to shield themselves from climate change risks.
«Companies could be worth considerably more, not less, if they aligned their portfolios with 2 C by exercising capital discipline and opting for lower-cost upstream projects that make both financial and climate sense,» said Anthony Hobley, chief executive of think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative.
https://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shutterstock_3186511551-e1466448670527.jpg267400adminhttps://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-nrgi.svgadmin2026-05-11 19:29:162026-05-11 19:37:04Big Oil Pledges $1B For Gas Technologies To Fight Climate Change
Oil traded near $44 a barrel in New York amid a broader market rally driven by speculation Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the U.S. election increased after the FBI said her handling of her e-mails wasn’t a crime.
Futures rose as much as 2.1 percent in New York following the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s report. The S&P 500 Index was set for its biggest gains since June and the dollar rose against its peers for the first time in seven sessions. Russia, the world’s biggest energy producer, is “on board” with an OPEC agreement to limit crude oil production to help re-balance the market, according to OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo.
«The U.S. election is front and center in all the markets,» said Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at Macro Risk Advisors LLC in New York. «There was talk over the weekend of Russia agreeing to limit production in cooperation with OPEC, but we need to see a resolution from the Nov. 8 vote before the focus shifts to Nov. 30.»
Oil retreated below $45 a barrel following the failure of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output quotas for member countries on Oct. 28, which must happen before a deal can be finalized. OPEC pumped at a record rate in October, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
West Texas Intermediate for December delivery rose 32 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $44.39 a barrel at 11:26 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract slid 59 cents to $44.07 on Friday, the lowest close since Sept. 20. Prices fell 9.5 percent last week, the most in almost 10 months.
Election Focus
Brent for January settlement rose 4 cents to $45.62 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices declined 8.3 percent last week, the most since January. The global benchmark traded at an 68-cent premium to January WTI.
«The stock market is up on the increasing likelihood of a Hillary Clinton victory,» said Thomas Finlon, director of Energy Analytics Group LLC in Wellington, Florida. «This is also strengthening the dollar, which is weighing on commodities.»
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the greenback against 10 major peers, rose as much as 0.5 percent. A stronger U.S. currency reduces the appeal of dollar-denominated raw materials as an investment.
A magnitude 5 earthquake struck near Cushing, Oklahoma, the nation’s largest crude-storage hub, prompting some pipeline operators to shut operations at the site as a precaution. Oklahoma’s oil and gas regulator reported that all pipelines under its jurisdiction were operating again after shutting down as a precaution because of the temblor, centered less than 2 miles west of Cushing.
Gasoline dropped to the lowest level in seven weeks after Colonial Pipeline Co. restarted the largest U.S. line for the fuel Sunday, six days after an explosion and fire in Alabama during planned work.
December gasoline futures fell 1.5 percent to $1.3579 a gallon after touching $1.3561, the lowest since Sept. 20.
https://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/shutterstock_1531783911-e1458166294942.jpg266400adminhttps://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-nrgi.svgadmin2026-05-11 19:29:152026-05-11 19:37:05Oil Trades Near $44 as U.S. Election Sends Stocks, Dollar Higher
Oil fell to its lowest in three months on Monday, as the prospect of another year of oversupply and weak prices overshadowed chances that Opec will reach a deal to cut output.
Donald Trump’s surprise win in last week’s US presidential election boosted the dollar and stocks but undermined oil. Crude has also fallen because of waning expectations that the world’s largest exporters will agree to reduce production this month.
Brent crude futures fell 50 cents on the day to $44.25 a barrel by 2:50pm GMT, while NYMEX crude futures dropped by 57 cents to $42.84 a barrel.
«In the same way that a strong Opec agreement was needed to continue the rally above $55, a lack of agreement will be needed to break below $40 and right now, we’re at $45,» Petromatrix strategist Olivier Jakob said.
Opec plans to cut or freeze output, but analysts doubt the group’s ability to reach an agreement at its meeting on 30 November.
Opec said on Friday its output hit a record 33.64 million barrels per day in October, and forecast an even larger global surplus in 2017 than the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Thursday.
Yet, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih has said it was imperative for Opec to reach a consensus on activating a deal made in September in Algiers to cut production.
«Opec know what needs to be done but too few members will agree to take the production pain for the price gain, knowing also that the price gain incentivises non-Opec to produce more, lengthening the rebalancing process,» PVM Oil Associates analyst David Hufton said.
The dollar index hit an 11-month peak on Monday, driven by an aggressive sell-off in bonds that has pushed Treasury yields to their highest since January.
Ordinarily, a strong dollar would push oil lower, but the correlation between the two is at its most positive in two months, suggesting they are more likely to move in lockstep with one another than in opposite directions.
Data from the InterContinental Exchange on Monday showed investors delivered the largest weekly cut on record to their bets on a sustained rise in the price of oil.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners LP a permit to build a section of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota after weeks of opposition from Native Americans, environmentalists and other groups.
“There’s more work to do” in exploring alternative routes, Jo-Ellen Darcy, the corps’ assistant secretary for civil works, said in a statement Sunday, rejecting the company’s request for a permit to route the line under Lake Oahe. The move punts a decision to the administration of President-elect Donald Trump. He expressed support for Dakota Access as recently as Dec. 1.
Protests against the crude-oil pipeline have resulted in hundreds of arrests and drawn support from celebrities. The standoff is emblematic of a broader effort by environmentalists to stall oil and gas pipelines, which they say aren’t needed and hurt the nation’s progress in reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. Protesters who have camped for months in North Dakota had been told the area would be closed on Monday and they would have to move to designated protest zones.
Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP called the move “a purely political action” in a statement Sunday, adding that they are fully committed to bringing the project to completion.
“This is nothing new from this administration, since over the last four months, the administration has demonstrated by its action and inaction that it intended to delay a decision in this matter until President Obama is out of office,” the companies said in the statement.
Energy Transfer Partners slid as much as 3.7 percent to $33.12 in New York on Monday. The stock was down 3.6 percent to $33.16 at 9:35 a.m. local time. Parent company Energy Transfer Equity LP fell as much as 1.8 percent to $16.18 while Sunoco Logistics declined as much as 3.4 percent to $22.40.
The setback may be temporary. While the decision by President Barack Obama’s administration prevents the pipeline’s completion for now, analysts and Republican leaders have said Energy Transfer will probably receive the approval it seeks after Trump takes office in January.
Trump Administration
“The Obama administration’s refusal to issue an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline violates the rule of law and fails to resolve the issue,” North Dakota Senator John Hoeven, a Republican, said in an e-mail. “Instead, it passes the decision off to the next administration, which has already indicated it will approve the easement, and in the meantime perpetuates a difficult situation for North Dakotans.”
Hoeven called for the protesters to immediately vacate the site.
The Trump administration can probably overturn the Corps’ decision and issue the required easement soon after taking power, Elvira Scotto, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note Sunday night.
Dakota Access has been central to the intensifying debate over the need for new pipelines in the U.S. It has become a rallying point for the anti-fossil fuel movement and has drawn intense opposition from Native Americans who say it’ll damage culturally significant sites.
“We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration,” Dave Archambault II, tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement on Sunday. “In a system that has continuously been stacked against us from every angle, it took tremendous courage.”
The pipeline could help cut costs for drillers in North Dakota’s Bakken shale region that have turned to more costly rail shipments when existing pipes filled up. Dakota Access, with a capacity of about 470,000 barrels a day, would ship about half of the current Bakken crude production and enable producers to access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets.
The permit would be for the final section of the pipeline, which spans four states. The project was originally slated to be operational at the end of this year.
“The thoughtful approach established by the Army today ensures that there will be an in-depth evaluation of alternative routes for the pipeline and a closer look at potential impacts,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in an e-mail.
Energy Transfer owns the project with Phillips 66 and Sunoco Logistics. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Enbridge Energy Partners LP announced a venture in August that would also take a minority stake in the pipeline.
https://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/shutterstock_2714709291-e1471900183401.jpg267400adminhttps://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-nrgi.svgadmin2026-05-11 19:29:132026-05-11 19:37:06Dakota Access Oil Pipeline in New Setback as Permit Denied
“Oil rose from its lowest close in a month amid estimates that U.S. crude inventories continue to shrink, although refined products are growing more plentiful.
Futures gained as much as 0.9 percent in New York after dropping 1 percent Monday. U.S. crude stockpiles are forecast to have decreased for a fourth week from a record last month, according to a Bloomberg survey before a report from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday. Meanwhile, U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories probably climbed last week. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute will release its supply data on Tuesday.
Oil has fallen the past two weeks on concerns increasing U.S. crude production will offset efforts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to eliminate a global supply glut. While Fereidun Fesharaki, the head of industry consultant FGE, says OPEC is certain to extend output cuts when its ministers meet later in May, industry data showed American rigs targeting crude climbed to the highest level in two years.
“Everyone is waiting for the oil-inventory drawdowns materializing as a result of the OPEC and non-OPEC cuts,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS Group AG in Zurich.
West Texas Intermediate for June delivery increased 38 cents to $49.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:15 p.m. London time. Futures fell 49 cents to $48.84 on Monday, the lowest settlement since March 28. Total volume traded was about 16 percent above the 100-day average.
U.S. Fuels
Brent for July settlement rose 54 cents to $52.06 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract dropped 53 cents to settle at $51.52 a barrel on Monday. The global benchmark crude traded at a $2.52 premium to July WTI.
Supplies of gasoline probably rose 1 million barrels to 242 million and inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes diesel and heating oil, surged 1.5 million barrels to 152.4 million last week, according to a Bloomberg survey of eight analysts. Nationwide crude stockpiles are forecast to have dropped by 3.25 million to 525.5 million barrels in the week ended April 28.»
https://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/11-Octubre_shutterstock_3936926201-e1476147259441.jpg267400adminhttps://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-nrgi.svgadmin2026-05-11 19:29:022026-05-11 19:29:02Oil Rises From One-Month Low Before U.S. Crude Inventory Data
Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Andrew Hay
«May 5 Mexican national oil company Pemex said on Friday that March crude exports fell to a record low of just above 1 million barrels per day (bpd), while oil output for the month also dipped.
Pemex’s March crude shipments averaged 1.001 million bpd, the lowest level of monthly exports going back to at least 1990 when records began. March exports were down nearly 6 percent compared with the same month last year.
Meanwhile, crude production during the month fell 9 percent to average 2.018 million bpd.
Pemex’s oil output hit a peak of 3.38 million bpd in 2004, but since then has steadily declined.
A four-year-old energy overhaul that ended Pemex’s decades-long monopoly on production led to the first-ever competitive oil auctions and joint venture partnerships, but fresh output streams from new entrants in the market are not expected for several years.
On Wednesday, despite lower oil production, Pemex reported its first quarterly profit in five years on higher sales and rising prices, gaining some $4.7 billion during the January-March period.»
https://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/economy-esp-21-feb-e1487651295872.jpg266400adminhttps://nrgibroker.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-nrgi.svgadmin2026-05-11 19:29:012026-05-11 19:29:01Mexico’s Pemex says March crude oil exports hit record low
