OPEC+ Committee Makes No Policy Recommendation Ahead of August Meeting
The monitoring committee—which usually meets every two months—said Monday that it will continue to monitor adherence to production adjustments and requested countries that didn't achieve full conformity to submit updated compensation plans to the OPEC Secretariat by Aug. 18.
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Business Insider
26 minutes ago
- Business Insider
BP, Shel, CVX: Oil Stocks Drop as OPEC Gets Set to Open Oil Taps and Boost Supply
Oil stocks took a hit today on reports that sector cartel OPEC is set to open the taps over the weekend. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. U.S. light crude oil prices dropped more than $1 a barrel on reports of a possible increase in production by OPEC and its allies. Less Slick Stocks Brent crude futures were down 88 cents, or 1.23%, at $70.82 a barrel in early trading. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was down $1.53, or 2.21%, at $67.73. BP (BP) was down 1% in early trading with Shell (SHEL) off 0.18% and Chevron (CVX) 0.33% lower. OPEC members and allies like Russia are reportedly getting close to an agreement to boost production by 548,000 barrels per day in September. It could even come as early as this Sunday, August 3 rd. More supply onto the market, coupled with continuing concerns over demand in the fragile global economy are likely to lead to lower prices. The factors which have largely driven the volatility in oil prices this year, see below, are also still present. Tariff Turmoil That largely means Trump's tariff policy. He signed an executive order yesterday imposing tariffs ranging from 10% to 41% on U.S. imports from dozens of countries and foreign territories that failed to reach trade deals by his August 1 deadline, including Canada, India and Taiwan. 'We think the resolution of trade deals to the satisfaction of the market – more or less, barring a few exceptions – has been the key driver for oil price bullishness in recent days, and further progress on trade talks with China in future could be a further confidence booster for the oil market,' said Suvro Sarkar at DBS Bank. Prices were also supported this week by Trump's threats to impose 100% secondary tariffs on Russian crude buyers as he seeks to pressure Russia into halting its war in Ukraine. This has stoked concern over potential disruption to oil trade flows and the removal of some oil from the market. 'It is not possible to completely replace Russian oil supplies in any case, which is why effective sanctions would lead to significantly higher oil prices,' said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Oil Falls Below $70 as Sentiment Sours
A poor U.S. jobs report led to a broader sell-off on Friday, with leading stock indices falling from record highs. Friday, August 1st, 2025 Buoyed by Trump's Russia threats and news of Indian state refiners curbing purchases of Russian crude, crude oil futures have been trending above $70 per barrel throughout the week, settling on Friday slightly below the $71 mark. Towards the end of the week, sentiment has been sapped by expectations of yet another OPEC+ production hike, potentially even as high as 548,000 b/d, as the eight output-cutting countries aim to get rid of voluntary quota commitments. US Slaps New Sanctions on Chinese Ports. The US State Department stated it would impose sanctions on 20 entities it suspects of trading Iranian oil and petrochemical products, including the Chinese oil terminal Zhoushan Jinrun, the fourth port facility in China to be directly targeted by the US. Indian State-Owned Refiners Stop Russian Imports. India's state-controlled refiners have stopped buying Russian oil as discounts narrowed to just -$1 per barrel to Dubai, further disincentivized by Donald Trump's announced 25% tariff on India if the country continues its purchases of Russian crude. Saudi Budget Deficits Shrinks on Higher Oil. Buoyed by higher crude oil production on the heels of OPEC+ unwinding, Saudi Arabia's budget deficit shrank to $9.2 billion in Q2 2025, a 40% decline compared to the previous quarter, putting the kingdom's public debt at 370 billion. Trump Endorses Chevron's Venezuela Return. Confirming rumours from a week ago, the Trump administration has reportedly granted a sanctions waiver to US oil major Chevron (NYSE:CVX), allowing it to resume operations in Venezuela on the condition that no money reaches the Venezuelan state. China's Polysilicon Industry Launches Its Own Revamp. Top Chinese producers of polysilicon, a key component of solar panels, are reportedly negotiating a $7 billion plan to purchase and shut down a third of the country's production capacity, equivalent to 1 million tonnes per year, eyeing an industry revamp. LNG Canada Runs into Problems. Shell's (LON:SHEL) $40 billion LNG Canada is undergoing technical issues that halved its liquefaction capacity, with problems reported at the Kitimat plant's gas turbine and refrigerant production unit, prompting at least one LNG tanker to divert away from the facility. Egypt's Favourite Oil Majors Expand Their Presence. Seeking to kick-start rapidly depleting offshore gas fields, Egypt's state oil company EGPC signed a joint exploration deal with European oil majors ENI (BIT:ENI) and BP (NYSE:BP) to appraise the El Temsah block to the east of Chevron's Nargis discovery. New Zealand Wants to Drill for Oil Again. The government of New Zealand has lifted its 2018 ban on offshore drilling introduced by the Ardern government back in the day, with crude production in the country gradually declining over the past years due to lack of investments, to just 17,000 b/d. Power Outage Saps Freeport LNG Output. The US' Freeport LNG terminal has been running at 50% of its capacity after a power outage had put the entire plant offline on Wednesday, representing a 1.1 BCf per day loss for feedgas demand in the country as it reported seven outage events in July alone. Europe Mulls Pooling LNG Purchases from US. The European Commission suggested pooling LNG buying demand from European companies to ramp up imports of US-origin LNG in line with Brussels' $250 billion energy import commitment, seeking to create some negotiating leverage with US suppliers. Copper TACO Clears Chicago Premium. In a perfect example of a TACO trade, US copper futures plunged by 22% on Wednesday after the Trump administration exempted copper ores, concentrates and cathodes from its oft-hailed 50% copper import tariff, sending COMEX futures down to $9,650/mt. US Refiner Gets Slapped with Giant Penalty. US downstream giant Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) was mandated to pay $800 million in damages to biofuels producer Propel Fuels for stealing trade secrets under the guise of gathering due diligence for a potential acquisition, according to a California state court ruling. Egypt Eyes FSRU Start Next Week. Egypt's government announced that flows from its recently deployed LNG regasification vessel Energos Eskimo are expected to start next week, seeking to further ramp up LNG imports after taking in an all-time high of 1 million tonnes last month, doubling June imports. By Tom Kool for More Top Reads From this article on Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
China's solar giants quietly shed a third of their workforces last year
By Colleen Howe BEIJING, August 1 (Reuters) -China's biggest solar firms shed nearly one-third of their workforces last year, company filings show, as one of the industries hand-picked by Beijing to drive economic growth grapples with falling prices and steep losses. The job cuts illustrate the pain from the vicious price wars being fought across Chinese industries, including solar and electric vehicles, as they grapple with overcapacity and tepid demand. The world produces twice as many solar panels each year as it uses, with most of them manufactured in China. Longi Green Energy, Trina Solar, Jinko Solar, JA Solar, and Tongwei, collectively shed some 87,000 staff, or 31% of their workforces on average last year, according to a Reuters review of employment figures in public filings. Analysts say the previously unreported job losses were likely a mix of layoffs and attrition due to cuts to pay and hours as companies sought to stem losses. Layoffs are politically sensitive in China, where Beijing views employment as key to social stability. Other than a 5% cut acknowledged by Longi last year, none of the firms mentioned above have announced any job cuts or responded to questions from Reuters. "The industry has been facing a downturn since the end of 2023," said Cheng Wang, an analyst at Morningstar. "In 2024, it actually got worse. In 2025, it looks like it's getting even worse." Since 2024, more than 40 solar firms have delisted, gone bankrupt or been acquired, according to a presentation by the photovoltaic industry association in July. China's solar manufacturers built new factories at a fever pitch between 2020 and 2023 as the state redirected resources from the sinking property sector to what it used to call the "new three" growth industries: solar panels, electric cars and batteries. That building spree led to falling prices and a brutal price war made worse by U.S. tariffs thrown up against exports from the many Chinese-owned factories in Southeast Asia. The industry lost $60 billion last year. MORE TO COME While analysts say it is unclear whether job cuts continued this year, Beijing is increasingly signalling it intends to intervene to cut capacity, sending polysilicon prices soaring nearly 70% in July while solar panel prices have increased more modestly. Major polysilicon producer GCL told Reuters on Thursday that top producers plan to set up an OPEC-like entity to control prices and supply. The group is also setting up a 50-billion yuan vehicle to buy and shut around a third of the industry's lower-quality production capacity. President Xi Jinping in early July called for an end to "disorderly price competition," and three days later the industry ministry pledged to calm price wars and retire outdated production capacity during a meeting with solar industry executives. While Beijing has not said when or how it will act, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said it was determined to focus on the issue before the end of the current five-year plan this year. Officials in eastern China's Anhui province, a manufacturing hub, told solar company executives in June to stop adding new manufacturing and shut production lines operating at under 30% capacity, according to two industry sources who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. A board member at a solar firm in the province said new capacity had already required verbal approval from powerful state planner the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) this year. They asked for their company's name to be withheld because the discussions were private. NO EASY FIX But many provincial governments are likely to be reluctant to crack down hard on overcapacity, analysts say. These officials are scored on jobs and economic growth and are loathe to see local champions sacrificed to meet someone else's target. Trina Solar's chairman told an industry conference in June that new projects had begun this year despite the NDRC calling for a halt in February. The foot-dragging reflects the scale of the cull required. Jefferies analyst Alan Lau estimated at least 20-30% of manufacturing capacity would have to be eliminated for companies to return to profitability. "There's a lot of overcapacity in China, like steel, like cement, but you don't see any industry in the past having industry-wide cash loss for one and a half years already," Lau said. Company-level losses are on the same scale as in real estate, another crisis-hit sector, even though solar is only about one-tenth the size, he said. "This is highly unusual and highly abnormal." Sign in to access your portfolio
