Crude Oil Futures

  With a series of tweets – more than 5 – Dharmendra Pradhan, the Indian oil minister thanked Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations for supplying India with LMO, liquid medical oxygen, in its hour of need. The Gulf nations are going to continue to supply the LMO for the next six months, according to the minister. In reciprocating the gesture, especially from Saudi Arabia, India’s oil refineries have restored their oil imports for June – and beyond – reversing the decision to look for ‘alternative sources’ when the relationship between the two countries deteriorated over the OPEC+ supply cut. The acrimony hit a peak when Mr Pradhan and his Saudi counterpart had a public spat over it; India cut a third of its oil imports from Saudi Arabia, dealing a significant blow to Saudi crude oil imports; being the third largest oil importer of the world that relies on the Middle East for 80% of its oil needs, it was a decisive step. On a positive note, the two countries clearly let bygones

  Crude oil price rose for the fourth successive day this week with the prospect of hitting $70 a barrel being close to reality. On Thursday, it got a significant boost from the latest crude inventory data from the EIA, the US Energy Information Administration: the EIA says there was a draw of 8 million barrels during the week ending April 30; it was more than what the API, the American Petroleum Institute, predicted a day earlier, 7.688 million barrels; on this occasion, the figured showed a clear sign of convergence. Although, the US crude draw has always been a catalyst when it comes to boosting the oil price, there are other factors at play too, especially in a period of the once-in-a-century global health emergency, the Coronavirus pandemic. There are, meanwhile, clear signs that the vaccine rollout is effective despite the emergence of the new variants of the virus; both the US and UK are leading on this front and   there are clear signals of infection rates going down, esp

  Oil price rose on Tuesday and continued well into the most part on Wednesday, despite the disastrous Coronavirus situation in India in particular, the world’s third largest importer and the worrying developments on the same front in the developing world, in general. The investors have seen a glimmer of hope in the crude oil markets, having digested the encouraging news both from Europe and the US. The major US cities have eased lockdowns and so did some European capitals: it does not mean we are out of the woods yet, though; the authorities – and the scientists – still want us to exercise caution while mingling among large crowds. The virus is still evolving and variants may stay a step ahead of the existing vaccines; there are no signs to believe that the new variants are less lethal than what existed in the early part of 2020. On a positive note, as far as crude oil markets are concerned, the easing restrictions in Europe and in the US encourage motorists to get back on roa

  Sources in the Middle East speculate that Saudi Arabia may bring the crude oil price down for Asia once more, exactly as it did during the first wave of the pandemic. Saudis may have taken into account the significant drop in demand from the region in the first quarter of this year: the crude oil imports by India, for instance, have fallen by 11.8%, compared with the same during the same period last year; in March, this year, the relationship between India and Saudi Arabia soured over the production cuts while India turning to alternate sources for its imports. Being true to its threats, India turned to the US and the latter became the second largest supplier of the crude oil to the former. With this development, Saudi share of the Indian market fell by 42% while the US share went up 48% in February this year. Indian authorities, meanwhile, were making plans to diversify its sources of crude oil from the Middle East; they were focusing on Iran, Venezuela, the US and even some A

  The arrival of Iranian crude oil, in ever increasing volumes, made a significant contribution to the rise in output by the OPEC+ in April, according to the sources in the Middle East. In fact, it was so significant that the involuntary cuts and agreed production cuts made by the member of the block were completely countered by the amount of Iranian oil that got into the markets. The analysts, however, do not believe it affected the dip in price this week, having risen for 6 successive weeks. On the contrary, it is seen as a positive factor by the investors: it’s an indication that Iran may come out of its closet, giving the region much-needed political stability, earlier than they thought; Iranian media, meanwhile, is optimistic about the prospect of some sanctions being lifted as the talks on the JCPOA, known as 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, continue in Vienna, Austria. Although the other signatories to the deal show cautious optimism, the desire from both sides to make it work