Oil News:
Friday, April 3rd 2024
The disappointment of the money markets with yet another hotter-than-expected set of US inflation data, aggravated by higher crude inventories and slackening geopolitical risk, has triggered a notable drop in oil prices, with both WTI and Brent shedding more than $5 per barrel since last week. Falling middle distillate and gasoline cracks have not boosted the sentiment either, so only a high-impact supply disruption could break the current bearish streak.
Exxon-Pioneer Deal Approved as FTC Bans Former CEO. The US Federal Trade Commission issued a consent order that hinted at the greenlighting of the $59.5 billion ExxonMobil-Pioneer deal, provided former CEO Scott Sheffield doesn’t join Exxon’s board over his alleged “collusion” with OPEC.
ADNOC Boosts Crude Production Capacity. The national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC, announced that it had increased its crude production capacity to 4.85 million b/d, 200,000 b/d higher than previously, getting one step closer to its 2027 target of 5 million b/d.
TMX Starts Commercial Operations. After 12 years of waiting, Canada’s $23 billion Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline started operations this week, with the first-ever cargo to load at the Westridge Terminal in two weeks and deliver a Western Access Blend cargo to China.
Russia’s Gazprom Posts Hefty Loss in 2023. Russia’s state-controlled pipeline gas monopoly Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) posted its first annual loss since 1999 as gas shipments to Europe dwindled, burning though $6.9 billion, whilst the gas giant builds a new major pipeline to China.
Anglo American Worth Than BHP’s First Offer. A new report published by researchers at CreditSights indicates just the copper assets alone of global miner Anglo American (LON:AAL) are worth at least $35 billion, almost the size of BHP’s initial offer, suggesting an improved bid is necessary.
EPA Rules Threaten US Power Grid Reliability. Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU), the US’ largest producer of coal, warned that the EPA has overstepped its authority with its target of cutting GHG emissions from coal by 90% by 2039, shortly after some power plants mulled a federal lawsuit.
Venezuela Exports Crack Under Pressure. Venezuela’s oil exports plunged a whopping 38% month-over-month to 545,000 b/d as demand subsided for the country’s heavy barrels on the heels of US sanctions, prompting at least six VLCCs to leave Venezuela empty in recent weeks.
US Senate Bans Russian Uranium Imports. The US Senate unanimously passed a bill banning the imports of Russian uranium, sending spot U308 uranium prices to $92 per pound again, also unlocking $2.7 billion in government support for domestic uranium mining in the United States.
Exxon to Take FID on Mozambique LNG by Year-End. US oil major ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) is reportedly looking to take a final investment decision over the delayed Rovuma LNG project by the end of this year, seeing the project’s capacity upgraded to 18 million tonnes per year.
Shell Brushes Off NYSE Relisting. Shell’s (LON:SHEL) chief executive Wael Sawan brushed off the issue of relisting the company at the New York Stock Exchange, saying that the company is not actively looking into it despite Shell shares trading below “fair market value” right now.
Afghanistan Wants to Become an Oil Marketplace. The Taliban in Afghanistan have been working with neighboring countries of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to create a regional trading hub that would link Russian crude oil flows to buyers in India and Pakistan via an onshore pipeline.
Cyprus Rejects Chevron’s Gas Plan. The launch of Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) Cyprus offshore gas fields ran into another delay as the Cypriot government rejected the US major’s plan to develop the 3.5 TCf Aphrodite field discovered in 2011, giving it six months to meet its requirements.
Baltimore Bridge Repair to Cost $2 Billion. The Maryland Department of Transportation said the state expects the rebuild of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, wrecked after the Dali cargo ship crashed into it on March 26, to cost $1.7-1.9 billion, with completion anticipated by fall 2028.
Hopped over its declining 20 day MA confounding the technicals.
Heed Druckenmiller’s comment from last night: liquidity rules the day. We have the Fed now providing added liquidity via a curtailing of QT going forward in June.
Inflation is clearly out of control.
So the Fed could not be seen to be even thinking about lowering the FFR. The market needs stimulus. These valuations will not sustain themselves. So the stimulus (liquidity) has come via curtailing QT, rolling off short term short end UST and buying newly issued short end UST, allowing the Treasury to keep funding the ever expanding interest payments on UST, which will swallow everything at this rate.
Every 100 days the debt expands by $1T. Without the Fed cutting the FFR back to ZIRP or NIRP, the debt will sink the ship.
Meanwhile equity markets are discounting almost nothing. LOL.
So tonight:
Watch Live Tonight: The Great Gold Vs Crypto Debate
BY TYLER DURDEN
SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024 – 05:05 AM
Proponents of gold and bitcoin often hail from the same ideological background: Austrian economists, dollar bears, Libertarians tired of State manipulation of fiat currencies and, generally, the anti-Fed crowd. Yet shared principles have not eased the age-old rivalry between the two assets.
Relative to Bitcoin, gold lost considerable value last year, only to rebound somewhat in the last month amid a flood of Chinese institutional and retail buying. However, as Benjamin Graham said: “In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” So we are more interested in the fundamentals:
- Does Bitcoin’s instant transferability and infinite portability make it the superior asset/security? Or is it a worthless string of numbers with infinite substitutes?
- Will gold’s thousand-year history as the preferred monetary commodity continue in the digital age? Or does its reliance on third-party custodians (at least at scale), and significant bulk, make it inferior to BTC
We’ll answer these questions, and more, tonight, at 7pm ET, when ZeroHedge is partnering with Crypto Banter to bring together top macroeconomic minds to debate.
In the anti-crypto corner is the man whose name is synonymous with “gold”, infamous crypto bear Peter Schiff. Alongside Schiff will be “Dr. Doom”, renowned economist Nouriel Roubini.
Arguing in favor of crypto will be Anthony Scaramucci – wealth manager with over $10 billion in AUM – as well as day-one crypto veteran Erik Voorhees, founder of ShapeShift and torch-bearer for the asset class’s libertarian roots.
The debate will be moderated by Ran Neuner, founder and host of Crypto Banter, one of the largest digital asset news channels on YouTube.
To my mind Mr Schiff just does not present the pro-gold argument coherently at all, which is a shame.
With the current state of affairs, gold will turn into possibly the last wealth preservation tool available. The equity markets (I hope) will survive, but the volatility when it arrives will be mind numbing and sustained.
jog on
duc
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