Mid-Week Review – July 1, 2020

Oil slips slightly on rising coronavirus cases, returning Libyan supplies

Oil prices slipped on Tuesday as investors worried that rising COVID-19 cases would hurt demand while supply could rise with a potential resurgence of Libyan oil production, which has slowed to a trickle since the start of the year. Click here to read more from Reuters.

Aramco chief adds to bullish calls for an oil demand rebound in late 2020

Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser is confident oil demand will continue to rebound in the second half of the year, as coronavirus-related lockdowns slowly ease. The view from the head of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant is in line with IEA and OPEC projections, which see demand averaging 91.7 million barrels per day and 90.6 million barrels per day respectively in 2020. Click here to read more from CNBC.

Oil posts hefty quarterly climb, but coronavirus cases, oversupply worries feed year-to-date loss

“The second quarter will not soon be forgotten by energy traders given that WTI crude oil futures plunged into negative territory for the first time in history, and decidedly so, in the month of April,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research. That was “due to logistics issues in the physical supply chain, most notably a critical lack of available storage for freshly lifted crude barrels in the U.S.” Click here to read more from MarketWatch.

China Oil Titans Plan Joint Crude Buying to Add Market Clout

China’s state-owned oil refining giants are in discussions to form a purchasing group to buy crude together, increasing their bargaining power and avoiding bidding wars. For a start, the group is set to collectively issue bids for certain Russian and African grades in the spot market, they said. While it’s unclear how the cooperation will evolve, the group represents refiners that import more than 5 million barrels of oil a day. Click here to read more from Bloomberg.