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Mexico Spent About $1.26 billion on 2018 Oil Hedges

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From Oil&Gas People / 1 de Diciembre de 2017

 

Mexico spent some 24.1 billion pesos ($1.26 billion) on contracts to hedge its 2018 oil exports, Finance Ministry Chief Economist Luis Madrazo said on Tuesday, part of government’s efforts to stabilize its budget.

Madrazo did not specify the number of barrels of export production that Mexico had hedged with derivatives contracts nor did he detail the average price per barrel of put options that the government has purchased.

In September, the Finance Ministry proposed a 2018 budget that based expected oil export revenue on an estimate of $46 per barrel. Members of Congress increased that estimate to $48.5 per barrel earlier this month as global oil prices rose.

For more than a decade, Mexico’s government has paid for a hedge every year in a bid to guarantee its revenues from oil exports by state company Pemex. The program is seen as the world’s top sovereign derivatives trade.

Last year, the government bought put options at an average price of $38 per barrel to cover 250 million barrels of crude at a cost of $1.03 billion and underpin the 2017 budget, which was based on an average price of $42 per barrel.

The government set aside $4 a barrel from a special fund to make up the difference between its put options and the budgeted price.

This year, Mexico is on track to not see any income from its oil hedge as prices for Mexican crude are currently near $54 per barrel, well above the put options. In 2016, Mexico saw a $2.65 billion payout from its oil hedge.

Mexico hedges its crude every year and deals are closely watched by the market since the trades are big enough to affect prices. The program is a longstanding part of the country’s strategy for safeguarding oil revenues from market volatility.

Mexico used to receive about one-third of federal revenues from oil sales, but it now funds less than one-fifth of the budget with oil sales after the collapse crude prices in late 2014 and a decline in production.

 

oilhedge

 

From Oil&Gas People / 1 de Diciembre de 2017

 

OPEC May Need to Extend Production Cuts to End of Next Year

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By Anthony Dipaola

“OPEC is certain to extend cuts in oil output when its ministers meet later in May and will need to keep limiting production until as late as the end of 2018, a veteran market analyst said.

The reaction of global crude inventories to the cuts will determine how long the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers stick with their policy of pumping less oil to counter a global glut, said Fereidun Fesharaki, the head of industry consultant FGE. Oil may drop to as low as $40 a barrel if U.S. stockpiles increase, he said Monday at the Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference in Dubai.

“The probability that OPEC will agree to extend its cuts is at 100 percent,” said Fesharaki, a former adviser in the late 1970’s to the Iranian Prime Minister. “And the cuts will have to be extended even beyond this year, to the middle or even to the end of next year.”

OPEC and 11 other producers including Russia agreed in December to pare production by 1.8 million barrels a day during the first half of this year. They’re seeking to eliminate an oversupply that depressed prices to less than half of their 2014 high, when benchmark Brent crude sold at $115 a barrel. Brent jumped 52 percent last year for the first annual gain after three consecutive decreases and was trading at $51.65 a barrel, down 40 cents, at 5:18 p.m. in Dubai.

The oil market needs more time to start using up stored inventories, which are on the verge of declining, Harold Hamm, chief executive officer of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources Inc., said at the same conference. U.S. oil output is poised to expand this year by at least 400,000 barrels a day, most of it from the Permian Basin, to a level of about 9.4 million barrels a day, he said.

OPEC plans to decide on May 25 at a meeting in Vienna whether to extend its production limits. There’s a consensus that the group will extend the cuts into the second half, Saudi Arabian Minister of Energy and Industry Khalid Al-Falih said last week.”

1 de mayo de 2017 6:33 GMT-5

Bloomberg

Oil Investors Ease Back as Market Steadies Before OPEC Talks

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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.”

 

 

Copyright: Bloomberg.

Stacked Oil and Gas Make Permian Deals Costly in Spite of Rout

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Oil prices are depressed, but Texas shale has never been more valuable.

A recent spate of land deals in the sprawling Permian Basin illustrates a counter-intuitive trend: Real estate in the country’s most active oil field is even more expensive today than it was before commodity prices crashed.

QEP Resources Inc. agreed to pay a price that works out to close to $60,000 per net acre in June for a slice of the Permian, in the basin’s priciest land deal on record.

That’s more than double the average $30,000 per net acre explorers paid for Permian land during the first nine months of 2014, when oil topped $100 a barrel, according to data from Citigroup Inc. Oil has been hovering at $45 to $50 per barrel since mid-August.

Over the past few months, at least four other explorers agreed to pay more than $30,000 per net acre to expand in the Permian: Concho Resources Inc., Parsley Energy Inc., SM Energy Co., and Silver Run Acquisition Corp., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The valuations are pretty lofty,” said Bryan Lastrapes, managing director at Moelis & Co. “When you look at the prices being paid for a flowing barrel, they are higher than when oil was at $100.”

Unusual Geography

The obvious question: With oil so much cheaper today, why has Permian land become so pricey? There are a few explanations. The first comes down to the same reason a dingy is more valuable on a sinking ship.

“It’s about scarcity,” said Bruce Cox, global head of energy acquisitions and divestitures with Credit Suisse Group AG.

The Permian is one of the few places in the U.S. where drilling remains profitable amid low prices, thanks to its unusual geography, in which different layers of oil- and gas-soaked rock are stacked like layers in a cake, he said. An explorer can drill multiple horizontal wells after digging straight down.

“What you can’t find in most plays is the Permian hydrocarbon column,” Cox said. “Companies can drill two to four times as many wells over a 10-year development period” in the Permian than in other basins.

QEP Rationale

This is a key part of the rationale QEP used to justify the price it agreed to pay for the 9,400 net acres in the Permian in June.

The company told investors it sees a chance to drill more than 400 horizontal wells along four different benches of shale, more than a half-mile down, where it has already determined there is oil. It sees additional upside potential drilling riskier, wildcat wells on three other benches. So it isn’t buying just one field, but as many as seven.

That deal also addresses a perpetual critique from investors that QEP isn’t big enough in the Permian, by increasing its position there by 50 percent, Richard Doleshek, QEP’s chief financial officer, said in August.

“From a dollar-per-acre standpoint, we heard a lot of conversation about how that was a big number,” Doleshek said during a presentation at an oil and gas conference sponsored by Enercom Inc., according to a transcript compiled by Bloomberg.

“When you look at it on a target basis, it’s relatively reasonable,” he said. “It’s pristine acreage.”

Lower Costs

Another factor driving up Permian land prices is the fact that it has some of the lowest break-even costs in the world. The area has more than a half-dozen fields where drilling can stay profitable even when oil falls below $30 a barrel, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The oil rout has set off a land grab for that reason, said Ron Gajdica, co-head of energy acquisitions and divestitures with Citigroup.

“When oil prices were high, there was a high supply of acreage with economic drilling opportunities,” he said. “Now, in a $40 to $50 oil price environment, acreage with economic locations is scarcer. There are only a limited amount of opportunities and many of them are in the Permian.”

A couple of other things are driving up the price of Permian land. First, development costs have come down sharply during the downturn, thanks to lower service costs, technological advances and more efficient techniques, Gajdica said. That means explorers can justify paying higher prices for land.

Second, Wall Street is helping the trend. Publicly traded Permian explorers such as Concho and Parsley trade at a premium to other shale players. They paid for their recent acquisitions with stock. Since their currency is worth more, they can afford to pay up.

In addition, other explorers with operations elsewhere, such as QEP and SM, saw their share prices spike after striking deals in the Permian, which could spur even more dealmaking in the area.

“The market tends to respond favorably when these Permian deals are announced,” Gajdica said.

Copyright: Bloomberg

Mexico Said to Begin Quietly Hedging 2017 Oil Price in June

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Mexico started quietly buying contracts to lock in 2017 oil prices when futures were near their peak in June, signaling the start of what has in prior years been the world’s largest sovereign petroleum hedge, according to people familiar with the deal.

The Latin American country bought put options, which give it the right to sell crude at a predetermined price, in June and July, earlier than the usual period of late August to late September, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, peaked at nearly $53 a barrel in early June. Since then, prices have declined about $10 a barrel as the outlook for the global economy soured and OPEC countries boosted production. The people didn’t say how much Mexico was able to hedge before prices fell back.

In response to a list of e-mailed questions, the Mexican Finance Ministry’s press office declined to comment on the status or progress of Mexico’s oil hedge negotiations.

The Latin American country has spent an average of almost $1 billion a year over the past decade buying put options through deals with banks that in the past have included Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas SA, Barclays Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc, according to government documents. Mexico’s annual hedge is the largest undertaken by a national government and often roils the market.

Mexico and its bankers try to keep the hedge under wraps as long as possible, to avoid others front-running the trade and making the insurance more expensive. In the past two years, however, some details of the hedge emerged because of new regulations introduced in the U.S. with the Dodd-Frank Act.

Dodd-Frank

The rules forced U.S. banks to report some details of the deal through public swap data repositories. But this year not a single deal bearing the marks of the Mexican hedge has emerged, and two of the people familiar with the program said Mexico and its bankers were using non-U.S. branches of the banks to bypass the reporting rules.

The move to hedge 2017 oil prices comes as Mexico stands to take in about $3 billion from this year’s hedge, which was put on from June to August 2015, if prices remain around current levels. That follows last year’s record payout of $6.4 billion.

Despite Mexico’s hedging success — it received $5 billion in 2009 after oil prices plunged — few other commodity-rich countries have followed suit. Ecuador hedged oil sales in 1993, but losses triggered a political storm and the nation never tried again. More recently, oil importers Morocco, Jamaica and Uruguay have bought protection against rising energy prices.

Copyright: Rig Zone

Oil extends rally to 5-week high, gains 10% in three days

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Oil prices hit five-week highs on Monday, gaining about 10 per cent in a three-day rally as speculation intensified over potential producer action to support prices amid a crude glut.

Data from market intelligence firm Genscape estimating a draw of more than 350,000 barrels at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for US crude futures last week added to the bullish sentiment, said traders who saw the data.

Brent crude rose $1.08, or 2.3 per cent, to $48.05 a barrel by 11:07 a.m. EDT (1507 GMT), after rising to $48.10 earlier, its highest since July 7. Brent has gained about 10 per cent cumulatively in the past three sessions, its most in such a stretch since May. Since the start of August, it is up 12 per cent.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained $1.06, or 2.4 per cent, to $45.55, after rallying earlier to $45.61, a peak since July 21. WTI has gained nearly 10 per cent on the month.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are to meet on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum, which groups producers and consumers, in Algeria from Sept. 26-28.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak bolstered hopes on Monday that oil producing nations could take action to stabilise prices, telling a Saudi newspaper that his country was consulting with Saudi Arabia and other producers to achieve market stability.

“With Russia joining the chorus, an array of bullish oil ETFs saw a sizeable influx of capital that lifted crude values by more than $5 a barrel off recent lows,” said Jim Ritterbusch of Chicago-based oil markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates.

“While we see very little possibility of an actualization of curtailed OPEC output, there will likely be enough chatter during the next five to six weeks to deter selling in allowing WTI to gravitate at around the $45 area, at least through the second half of this month,” he added.

But other analysts were sceptical that the rally would continue.

“In our view a renewed price correction cannot be ruled out if market participants start focusing on the supply side again, for the latest drilling activity figures in the US cast doubts that the oversupply is really being eroded,” Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said in a note.

There are also doubts that Saudi Arabia and other major OPEC members such as Iran will put aside a market share battle in order to prop up prices.

On the demand side, the world’s three biggest economies – the United States, China and Japan – all published downbeat economic data between Friday and Monday that could signal an erosion soon in oil demand.

Copyright: Emirates 24/7

Safety Investment Remains Resilient Despite Downturn

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Oil and gas companies are continuing to invest in safety research despite the current oil price downturn, DNV GL representatives told Rigzone during a recent trip to the firm’s Spadeadam testing and research facility in Cumbria, England.

“Business is tough in the oil and gas sector but committed customers are still investing in safety improvement. They’re still conducting research into major hazards,” said Gary Tomlin, DNV GL UK’s vice president of safety and risk.

Naturally, the level of this investment was slightly hampered by the drop in crude prices, but investment has started to increase over the last couple of months.

“We saw a hiccup and to be honest, it’s inevitable. When the oil price drops from $110 a barrel to $27, you’re kidding yourself if you’re not going to see a hiccup,” said Hari Vamadevan, DNV GL – Oil & Gas’ regional manager for the UK and West Africa.

“We’ve seen a pickup I would say over the last couple of months … oil recovery to $50 has helped a little bit, I think there’s positive cash flows for some companies, but many companies haven’t stopped [investing],” he added.

Investment in this type of research is expected to rise even further over the not too distant future, as the oil price achieves an anticipated rise and oil and gas firms gain more access to expendable income.

From an industry perspective we think … we’ll see an upturn 2017-2018,” said Tomlin. “I think that we’ve plateaued. We are a cyclical oil and gas industry … I think we’ve hit the low point, but we do need to be aware that we still need to control costs,” said Vamadevan. “I think companies will become profitable at $50 and $60 per barrel, and as the price rises I think there will be more investment. So I am hopeful that we will see more activity going forward,” he added.

Oil, Gas Safety Testing ‘Critically Important’

Oil and gas major hazards testing and research was described as critically important by Tomlin, who outlined the significance of Spadeadam for the hydrocarbon sector.

“It’s a unique facility worldwide. There are other facilities like this, but none that do the breadth of the work we do, so it’s something we’re incredibly proud of. The work we do here is of critical importance,” said Tomlin.

DNV GL Spadeadam Testing and Research is designed to carry out full-scale hazardous trials and simulate real-world environments. Situated in 120 acres (50 hectares) of Ministry of Defence land in the north of England, it offers the opportunity to test equipment, components, products, techniques and processes, and to provide data to validate computer models. 

aff at Spadeadam have recreated a number of major accidents at their facility – ranging from the Piper Alpha platform explosion to the Buncefield oil storage terminal fire – to find out exactly what went wrong and help prevent future incidents in the oil and gas industry.

“We’re undertaking research here that helps … [oil and gas companies] understand hazards that they  manage in their facilities, so that they can take measures to limit the risk to their people and their infrastructure,” said Tomlin. “We get people to experience large scale fires and explosions so that they can see and feel the power of these events. They can’t get that anywhere else in the world.”

Most safety lessons in the oil and gas sector come from real world events, said Vamadevan, who highlighted how experiences of this nature can be more useful than theoretical work.

“If you … felt a jet fire, you experience what happens in an explosion, it means you understand it much better than reading in a textbook, seeing a colour contour on a map or seeing a percentage,” Vamadevan told Rigzone.

Copyright: Rig Zone

Raymond James: Get Ready for $80 Oil

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Rebounding after a two-year collapse, it’s only this month that oil prices have pushed up past $50 a barrel, but Raymond James & Associates says this is just the beginning for higher prices.

In a note to clients, analysts led by J. Marshall Adkins say West Texas Intermediate will average $80 per barrel by the end of next year — that’s higher than all but one of the 31 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. 

“Over the past few months, we’ve gained even more confidence that tightening global oil supply/demand dynamics will support a much higher level of oil prices in 2017,” the team says. “We continue to believe that 2017 WTI oil prices will average about $30/barrel higher than current futures strip prices would indicate.”

The team went on to lay out three reasons for their bullish call, all of which are tied to global supply — the primary factor that precipitated crude’s massive decline.

Here’s how the rebalancing of the global oil market will be expedited from the supply side, according to the analysts:

First, the analysts see production outside the U.S. being curbed by more than they had previously anticipated, which constitutes 400,000 fewer barrels of oil per day being produced in 2017 relative to their January estimate. In particular, they cite organic declines in China, Columbia, Angola, and Mexico as prompting this downward revision.

“When oil drilling activity collapses, oil supply goes down too!,” writes Raymond James. “Amazing, huh?”

Adkins and his fellow analysts also note that the unusually large slew of unplanned supply outages will, in some cases, persist throughout 2017, taking a further 300,000 barrels per day out of global supply.

Finally, U.S. shale producers won’t be able to get their DUCs in a row to respond to higher prices by ramping up output, the team reasons, citing bottlenecks that include a limited available pool of labor and equipment.

Combine this supply curtailment with firmer than expected global demand tied to gasoline consumption, and Adkins has a recipe for $80 crude in relatively short order.

“These newer oil supply/demand estimates are meaningfully more bullish than at the beginning of the year,” he writes. “Our previous price forecast was considerably more bullish than current Street consensus, and our new forecast is even more so.”

The only analyst with a higher price forecast for 2017, among those surveyed by Bloomberg, is Incrementum AG Partner Ronald Stoeferle. He sees West Texas Intermediate at $82 per barrel next year. The consensus estimate is for this grade of crude to average $54 per barrel in 2017.

Over the long haul, however, Raymond James’ team sees WTI prices moderating to about $70 per barrel.

Copyright: Rig Zone

Credit Suisse: The Death of Oil Demand has been Greatly Exaggerated

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Even as U.S. oil production started to slide in the second half of 2015, the downside risks to oil prices continued to dominate.

In the third quarter, broad-based manufacturing softness and financial market turmoil threatened to derail growth in developed markets, bringing some focus back to the demand side of the ledger. Annual oil demand growth proceeded to drop off in the fourth quarter from above 2 percent to 1.2 percent with acute cracks in China and advanced economies, seemingly confirming analysts’ worst fears.

But Credit Suisse Group AG Global Energy Economist Jan Stuart concludes that oil demand “growth appears to be re-accelerating” in 2016, with the recent bout of softness attributable to a warm winter, subdued activity in resource-extracting industries, and persistent weakness in select sputtering emerging markets like Russia and Brazil.

“Oil demand growth is alive and well,” he writes in a recent note. “We think that with hindsight this winter will look like a dip in an otherwise still unfolding fairly strong growth trend that is partly fueled by the ongoing economic recovery of in North America and Europe and longer standing trends across key emerging market economies.”

While concerns about global growth linger, demand for crude doesn’t match the narrative that a worldwide recession is imminent. In particular, for the world’s two largest economies, the U.S. and China, Stuart notes that oil demand growth has rebounded following a sluggish fourth quarter.

“While on balance oil demand growth appears relatively sluggish still in the first quarter; February data either improved on January (e.g. Brazil, the U.S.); or extended strong growth (e.g. India, South Korea), while in China demand appeared to have rebounded as well,” he writes.

Demand for oil has been increasingly attributable to passenger vehicles rather than its use as an input in the production process, as the middle classes in emerging markets swell.

In light of this, Credit Suisse anticipates that crude demand will keep running hotter than industrial production:

“We forecast modestly re-accelerating demand growth over the course of this year, so long as a recession continues to be avoided,” asserts Stuart. “We project in fact that oil demand should continue to outperform historic correlations with industrial production.”

This outlook for demand bolsters the analyst’s confidence that oil prices could hit $50 per barrel in May.

Copyright: Bloomberg

Oil back below $40 as Iran dashes hopes for quick deal on output

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Oil fell around 3 percent on Monday after Iran dashed hopes of a coordinated production freeze any time soon, returning bearish sentiment over a supply glut that has sent prices crashing.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell back below $40 a barrel, trading at $39.27 at 1308 GMT, down $1.12 on Friday’s close. Brent hit a 12-year low of $27.10 in January.

U.S. crude CLc1 was down $1.09 at $37.41 a barrel.

“Oil is down because Iran said they would only join the output freeze group once they reached production of 4 million barrels a day,” said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.

He was referring to comments by Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh on Sunday that the OPEC member would join discussions after its output reached that level.

Iran’s oil exports are due to reach 2 million bpd in the Iranian month that ends on March 19, up from 1.75 million in the previous month, he said.

Zanganeh met Russian counterpart Alexander Novak in Tehran on Monday but talks focused on long-running discussions about an oil and gas swap mechanism.

According to the Shana news agency, Zanganeh said Iran and Russia could cooperate on the swap, which would see Russia send oil and gas to northern Iran in return for Iranian supply to Russian customers in the Gulf.

Saudi Arabia appeared to have stuck to a preliminary deal with some other producers to freeze output, as its crude production held steady in February at 10.22 million barrels per day (bpd), an industry source told Reuters.

OPEC members and non-OPEC producers are likely to meet again in mid-April in Doha to discuss freezing output, OPEC sources told Reuters.

A March 20 meeting in Russia, which was part of an earlier plan, now looks unlikely.

Worries about demand fundamentals moved back into the spotlight as investment bank Morgan Stanley warned that a slowing global economy and high production would prevent any sharp rises in oil prices.

“Oil prices now seem to have bottomed, even though they are likely to stay subdued for the rest of this year before starting to move higher in 2017,” the U.S. bank said in a research note. It added that cheap oil had not provided the boost to growth that many had hoped for.

In a sign that investors are growing more skeptical about a rebound in oil prices, ICE data showed on Monday that speculators had cut net long positions in Brent crude by 9,500 contracts in the week to March 8.

Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB Markets in Oslo, said a roughly 2 million bpd oil surplus would weigh down oil prices in the short term. The imminent restart of a pipeline between Iraq and Turkey and the breakdown in talks about a production freeze would add further downside, he said.

“We are likely to see $35 a barrel before we see $45 a barrel.”

Copyright: Reuters