Oil updates highs from February 2020

The price of crude oil (March Brent futures) was up 1.2% to $56.34 a barrel brent on Tuesday, January 12, at 15.19 GMT. The “black gold” market has been updating its peaks since February last year and has already risen to $56.72 on January 12.

Support came from hopes of achieving market equilibrium after OPEC agreements that do not change oil production levels for most alliance countries in February-March. At the same time, Saudi Arabia intends to reduce it.

Market participants also recreate expectations of releasing U.S. Department of Energy data on the dynamics of crude oil and petroleum reserves in the country last week. Analysts estimate that oil inventories fell by 2.7 million barrels. In this way, the indicator can be registered for the fifth week in a row. Azerbaijan, through the Ministry of Energy, announced a 100% fulfilment of its commitment under the OPEC agreement in December. Oil production was 587,000 barrels per day. The country plans to increase daily oil production by 8,000 barrels in February-March, following its commitments under the OPEC agreement to limit production to 595,000 barrels.Kazakhstan plans to produce 86 million tons of oil and gas condensate in 2021, the energy ministry said. In 2020, production amounted to 85,7 million tonnes. In “pre-sight” 2019 production amounted to 90.5 million tons.Gas prices at Europe’s most liquid TTF center (Netherlands) continued to rise actively and reached $286.3 per 1,000 cubic meters on Tuesday. This is due to weather conditions and predicted cooling on the Eurasian continent. In addition, gas supplies in the US have been diverted from Europe to Asia, where prices are rising even further. Meanwhile, in 2020, in the face of a pandemic, gas prices in Europe almost tripled – below $40 per 1,000 cubic meters – in May. However, in the fall, the quotes returned to pre-crisis levels, and in December broke the psychological mark of $200.

Leave a Reply