Mid-Week Review – September 9, 2020
Oil prices are collapsing after Saudi Arabia sends ominous signal
The fierce selling in the energy market is being driven largely by rising concern about how much crude the fragile world economy needs. With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, summer driving season in the United States is over. Jet fuel demand remains extremely weak because many people don’t want to fly during the pandemic. And no one knows for sure how long it will take to recover. Click here to read more from CNN.
In reversal, Trump to ban oil drilling off coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina
Trump on Tuesday announced plans to extend a moratorium on oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, an area that includes the Sunshine State’s west coast, as well as expanding it to include the Atlantic coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. The move marks a stark reversal for Trump as he seeks to shore up votes in the tightly contested state ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Click here to read more from the Washington Post.
Exclusive: Trump administration to deny pending retroactive US biofuel waivers
US President Donald Trump has instructed that dozens of oil refiner requests for retroactive waivers from US biofuel laws be denied amid concerns the issue could cut into his support in the Farm Belt, three sources familiar with the decision said. Click here to read more from Reuters.
Big Oil’s hopes are pinned on plastics. It won’t end well.
Overall, plastics represent a fairly small sliver of oil demand. Annually, the world consumes around 4,500 million tonnes (mt) of oil but only around 1,000mt of petrochemicals (oil and natural gas used to make chemical products), and of that 1,000mt, only about 350mt are plastics. (A tonne is a metric ton, about 1.1 US tons.) Nonetheless, plastics are commonly projected to be the biggest source of new demand for oil over coming decades — in some projections, the only real source. Click here to read more from Vox.
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