Crude Oil Futures

  Airlines, one of the hardest hit sectors by the pandemic, anticipate man-conceived headwinds when they finally get back to normal business in the post-pandemic world. The airline sector feels that they will have to come up with long-term strategies to reduce greenhouse gases at their sources – the engines that spew thousands of tons of carbon dioxide, in this case. This is a sector that lost almost 75% of its passenger numbers due to the pandemic and on a soul searching mission to get back into business to stay viable, with an estimated loss of over $300 billion – according to the ICAO – International Civil Aviation Organization. Although most of the major airlines will survive, thanks to the backing by national governments, lots of regional airlines across the world have gone bust, not being that lucky. The aviation sector is one of the first five man-made greenhouse gas emitters, according to the IEA, International Energy Agency, being responsible for 3.5% of the man-made g

  The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, JMMC, meeting of the OPEC+ that took place in the form of a virtual conference on Wednesday, finally managed to provide the markets with much needed sense of direction. The oil price shot up, having been in decline for days. Brent oil hit above $58, the highest so far, during the turbulent period. The meeting was unusually short, yet managed to reach an agreement with most members seeing eye to eye on the main issue: maintaining the crude price while not flooding the market with extra crude flow. The members praised Saudi Arabia for extra output cut that came into effect on February 1 – one million bpd – that   could last two months; they noted the move with gratitude . The compliance by the members with, what OPEC+ called, the original production adjustments, according to the communique issued after the meeting, was excellent. The cumulative production cut, according the latest meeting, was a staggering 2.1 billion barrels. They

  Oil price that dipped last week, having been on a rising-mode for past few weeks, bounced back through the fog of uncertainty on Monday. Traders are optimistic that the markets will not be flooded with crude oil as they first feared after the new US administration came into power; they were particularly worried about a significant contribution to the oil supply from Iran, as the latter has been boosting its production in hope of a breakthrough with the US on the nuclear deal. That hope was dashed by Anthony Blinken the new Secretary of State, who recently said that an agreement with Iran was ‘long way’. Although Iran sounds some conciliatory notes in recent days, a deviation from its hard-line stance, Iran’s entry into the markets as a normal player soon, is highly unlikely; Israel does not make that move any easier either. OPEC+ meeting comes in the wake of significant rise in oil price since they announced production cuts in their last meeting in January this year; they may

  A Dutch court ordered a Nigerian subsidiary of the oil giant, Shell, last week to compensate for the damage caused by oil spills to local farmers on its watch in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, in 2013. The unprecedented ruling will have server repercussion for the international oil companies, which work in Nigeria – and beyond its borders. Shell had been denying the allegation that it was responsible for the oil spills that ruined the livelihood of farmers living in the region; instead, it had been blaming it on sabotage. Of course, sabotage and oil theft are rampant in the region. The Dutch court, however, made the ruling while holding the Nigerian subsidiary responsible for the damage and ordered the compensation; in what form it will take is to be spelt out soon. The ruling has made the villagers affected by the disaster happy and they will get some form of compensation, much to their delight. In Nigeria, the state of economy as a whole has been in the doldrums for the

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, that used to enjoy relative stability with a fragile democracy, started grabbing headlines again for all the wrong reasons. After days of speculation about a coup attempt by the powerful military, on Monday, it just went ahead with what it had been planning for weeks, if not months. With a series of early-morning raids, it detained the elected ruling members including the most famous of them all, Aung San Suu Kyi, citing the irregularities in the elections held in November, last year. According to the constitution of Myanmar, the military retains 25% of seats of the parliament that makes it impossible to change the status quo. Since the sanctions against Myanmar lifted in 2012, its economy showed an impressive growth; in recent months, it started showing signs of stagnation, though. Sharing borders with two regional rivals, India and China, it was challenging for Myanmar to strike a geopolitical balance when it came to much-needed foreign inv

  Oil price that has been rising for the past few weeks, judging by the above chart, shows signs of becoming static – finally. Neither the cut in output by the OPEC+ nor the significant drop in crude oil stockpiles moved the price up, buckling the widely-anticipated trend. Do the investors know something that is not depicted by these charts that we do not know? It remains to be seen. Of course, the Coronavirus infections show no sign of abating; there is no heighted alarm among the public either, perhaps as a psychological offshoot of what is known as Covid-19 fatigue. The rate of deaths in Europe and America, especially among the elderly, however, is still alarmingly high, with the United Kingdom and the USA leading on that front in the West. Although, vaccines are being introduced by the drug companies with varying efficacy rates, even the rich nations in the world, including those with a global reputation for efficiency, are struggling with mounting logistical challenges.