Crude oil markets face a crucial period

The price of crude oil dropped significantly while recording the biggest drop since October last year; it did coincide with the rise in the US inventories for the week ending July 30, by over 3.6 million barrels. There is a combination of factors that clearly has been driving the price of crude oil …

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New Iranian president revives the hopes of restarting the talks on JCPOA

The inauguration of the new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, ended without the rise of a new controversy amidst heightened tension in the region. The speech delivered by the new president to an audience with significant foreign participation was somewhat conciliatory too. He emphasized his desire t…

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Oil price seasaws and Covid infection rates drive it

It is now explicitly clear that the falling crude oil price is directly related to the spikes in Coronavirus infections across the world, regardless of the region. As of 09:15 GMT, the WTI and Brent stood at $68.05 and $70.29 respectively, having fallen sharply for the past 3 days; the rate of fall…

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Oil Price: crude oil markets are still shaky despite the end of maritime 'incident;

The maritime incident involving a Panamanian-registered ship in the in the Gulf of Oman near the 25 th parallel north that created buzz yesterday has ended; according to certain media reports, the same ship was involved in a similar situation in the region two years ago due to an issue over sanction…

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Oil Price: what really spooked the markets?

The crude oil markets had a rocky start on Monday, perhaps owing to a range of unexpected global developments. At the top of the list was the drone attack, attributed to Iran, on an Israeli-registered tanker off the coast of Oman. The serious attack that led to the death of the captain and a Britis…

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Resistance Axis: is this a resurrected central line for evolving Middle Eastern troubles to move around?

In the State of the Union address in 2002, President George W Bush coined the phrase ‘axis of evil’, while associating it with three arch enemies of the US at that time – Iran, Iraq under Sadaam Hussain and North Korea. In response, Iran defined its own counter-axis and named it, the ‘Axis of Resis…

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WTI Oil Price against EIA Crude Inventories: why my machine learning algorithm failed to find the ultimate formula?

The crude oil price, which took a dramatic fluctuation last week, finally got the ultimate market stabilizer – the fall of the US crude oil inventories. It boosted the volatile markets with much needed impetus for some sort of stability. The draw of over 4 million barrels for the week ending July, 2…

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Oil Price: US inventory draw lifts the market mood up

The unsettled crude oil markets seem to have got a mood booster, having been through some chaotic market speculations - at last. With the release of the latest US inventory data by the EIA, US Energy Information Administration, the markets found some hope and the price of crude oil got back into the…

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The withdrawl of American troops from Iraq and its direct impact on the crude oil markets

The recent meeting between Mustafa al Kadhimi, the Iraqi prime minister and President Jo Biden at the White House came at a critical time for Iraq, in particular and the region, in general. In more than one way, the beleaguered Iraqi prime minister is stuck between a rock and a hard place at present…

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Oil Price in 2021: evolving Middle Eastern politics still weighs heavily on it!

Global crude oil markets, which saw a highly tumultuous days during the week, finally reached an uneasy equilibrium by the weekend, with the price of WTI and Brent reaching $72.07 and $74.10 respectively. Exactly a week before to date, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi energy minister, supporte…

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Heightend Activities in Iranian Oil Sector: a deal over the JCPOA may be in the offing!

With Goreh-Jask pipeline coming into operation on Thursday, Hassan Rouhani, the outgoing Iranian president could not hide his jubilation for the achievement. Mr Rouhani said during the inauguration that it was built purely by the indigenous talent, referring to the Iranian engineers, architects and…

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Crude Oil Markets: voltality subsides with demand/supply back under spotlight

The volatility that we saw in the crude oil markets has subsided somewhat as we approach the weekend, preceded by a tumultuous few days. The oil price is back in the green for both WTI and Brent, gaining 0.55% and 0.51% respectively as of 15:20 GMT. The rate of both the rise and fall of the oil price…

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Oil Supply Woes: Iraq is back under spotlight - for the wrong reasons!

As analysts in the oil sector keep their focus firmly on the spat between the two important Middle Eastern allies, they seemed to have inadvertently missed the attention on an equally important – and relevant – player in the Middle East – Iraq. Iraq has the world’s 5th largest oil reserves and is th…

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Oil Price: the UAE managed to elevate its baseline; production rises by 400,000 bpd

The OPEC+ finally managed to overcome the weeks of uncertainty over the direction that the group is supposed to move in the post-pandemic world, on Sunday. Hailing the agreement, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi Energy Minister, said “consensus building is an art,” having reached the collectiv…

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OPEC+ Meeting on Sunday: will the UAE get its way?

After two weeks of uncertainty, the OPEC+ is finally meeting on Sunday, the group announced yesterday. The bone of contention between the UAE and Russia that delayed the last meeting was the insistence of the UAE on increasing its baseline from 3.2 million bpd to 3.8 million bpd. If agreed, the UAE w…

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