Mid-Week Review

Oil Rises to Highest This Year as OPEC Curbs Stoke Optimism

Crude advanced to the highest this year after a further reduction in supply from OPEC signaled that global markets are tightening.  Declines in OPEC production are stoking optimism among investors as Saudi Arabia pressed on with output curbs and as power blackouts in Venezuela further squeezed supplies. Meanwhile, U.S. crude stockpiles probably declined by 900,000 barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey ahead of a government report on Wednesday. Oil has rallied more than 30 percent this year as Saudi-led production cuts, together with receding fears over the global economic growth outlook, appear to be easing investor concerns. Click here to read more from Bloomberg.

Oil Prices Spike On Shale Slowdown

The collapse of oil prices late last year, along with pressure from shareholders, has led to a slowdown in the U.S. shale industry. The EIA released new monthly data on March 29, which revealed a decline in output of about 90,000 bpd between December and January, evidence that shale drillers slammed on the breaks after oil prices fell off a cliff in the fourth quarter. The 90,000-bpd decline came after a rather meager 35,000-bpd increase the month before, which was the weakest increase in months. But the U.S. shale industry is facing more headwinds than just a temporary dip in oil prices. Shareholders have run out of patience with unprofitable drilling, and are demanding returns, which is tightening the screws on less competitive companies and forcing spending cutbacks across the board.  Click here to read more from OilPrice.com.

A Key to the Arctic’s Oil Riches Lies Hidden in Ohio

Working through two winters in the biting Arctic cold, roustabouts bored three miles deep into the coastal plain of northeast Alaska in search of oil. In the spring of 1986, they packed up and left, uttering not a word about what they had found and leaving only a short section of steel pipe to mark the spot. For more than three decades, the findings from the $40 million exploratory well have been one of the oil industry’s most closely guarded secrets. Outside of the oil giants that paid for it, only a handful of people know what was discovered there. Now the secret has become much more than a curiosity: The Trump administration, undoing decades of environmental protections, plans to sell drilling leases in the area, which is part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and has long been believed to contain North America’s biggest untapped onshore trove of oil.  Click here to read more from the New York Times.

Venezuela oil exports stable in March despite sanctions, blackouts -data

Venezuela’s state-run energy company, PDVSA, kept oil exports near 1 million barrels per day in March despite U.S. sanctions and ongoing power outages that crippled its main export terminal, according to PDVSA documents and Refinitiv Eikon data.  The OPEC member stabilized exports in March after shipments fell about 40 percent in February from the month before, in the immediate aftermath of the United States announcing it would impose sanctions on oil sales to choke off main source of revenue for the government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Click here to read more from Reuters.