Crude Oil Futures

  At present, OPEC+, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia, resembles an unstable nucleus of a radioactive atom; judging by what we hear on political front, there seems to be uneasy compliance with self-imposed quota-limits with murmurs of cacophonies.   Although crude price dipped slightly over the past two days, it is still high and countries that desperately need petro cash to prop up under-performing economies are deprived of a once-in-a decade opportunity to cash in on the fortune. These nations, exactly like sub-atomic particles in an unstable nucleus, do make subtle manoeuvres in seeking unknown freedom, while securing their positions within where they belong to – the crude oil cartel, in this case. The current predicament of Iraq is a case in point. Bloomberg reported this week that export of crude oil by Iraq in the first half of February was higher than what was permitted by the loose-agreement by the OPEC+. If officially confirmed, not only

People in Texas are suffering at present on an unprecedented scale and when the city mayor shot himself in the foot, while the response should have been a shot in the arm – not in vaccine sense – it hardly helps to boost the morale of ordinary people, let alone the vulnerable. Clearly, the demand of electricity has outweighed supply and the risks of wind power as a substitute are there for all to see. How many of us saw this coming – the frozen wind turbines? I certainly is not one of them. Since the energy provided by wind turbines in Texas rose from 11% in 2015 to 23% in 2020, i.e., almost a quarter of the state’s need, everyone talks about the impact on it by the frozen wind turbines for valid reasons. Even the website of those who manage the electricity supply cannot be accessed right now, citing security; it’s like remedying diarrhoea with a tight pamper. Over 2 million people are affected it’s just outrageous to ask people to fend themselves and to be told, ‘no one owes y

  Having risen steadily – and somewhat alarmingly – for more than a week, Brent crude price has slightly gone down for most of the day on Tuesday. Major oil producers in the OPEC, meanwhile, still think the price of the crude oil is in the right range as far as their economic issues are concerned, thanks to the output cut. The minnows in the organization, however, do not see it that way and reluctantly agree with cuts; they want to sell as much oil as possible and earn revenues as a matter of urgency, but their room for manoeuvre is severely restricted by the organizational obligations; Nigeria is a case in point. Against this backdrop, analysts are keen on following the next month’s meeting of the OPEC+, as the outcome of these monthly meetings happen to be the single most significant factor in determining the crude oil price. The relative success of vaccine programmes, meanwhile, is bringing the traffic back on our streets despite lockdowns – and the outbreaks of new variants

  At 04:27 GMT on Monday, Brent crude price went up by $1.09, a rise in 1.8%. WTI crude, meanwhile, gained $1.28. Analysts may think the stimulus package announced by the Biden administration and the hopes of success of the vaccination programmes across the world are behind the spike in crude price in the morning hours in Asia. It, however, was triggered off by a drone operation aimed at Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels. According to Saudis, a drone, laden with explosives, was detected by the Saudi interceptors on Sunday night; they say it was destroyed on detection in the Saudi skies. This has been the pattern whenever Houthi drones are detected in the Saudi airspace; analysts are more worried about the potential for a flare-up between Iran, the backers of Houthi rebels, and Saudi Arabia. Since the drone was destroyed by Saudi Arabia before it damaged the intended target, markets breathed a sigh of relief and the price movements since then reflect the trend. Asian shares rose rap

On Boxing Day in 2020, we were mostly indoors due to the lockdown over the Christmas period in the United Kingdom; nature hardly helped alleviate the gloom during the difficult time either in the hour of national need; on the contrary, its fury developed into a monstrous storm, knows as Storm Bella, which relentlessly battered the British Isles. Being true to the cliché, the dark clouds did have a silver lining as far as the camp of renewables was concerned; the winds of Storm Bella, with gusts up to 100 miles per hour, played its role to make history in the United Kingdom; more than 50% of the electricity needs of the country came from wind power on Boxing Day – for the first time ever. Although it is a cause for celebration as far as the renewable sector is concerned, the inevitable challenges were not eclipsed by the technological feat; to put it simply, it was a random wind speed that did the trick rather than the human quick thinking in harnessing the wind power on this occasion.