Latest news with #IceBrent
Ya Libnan
06-07-2025
- Business
- Ya Libnan
OPEC+ members agree to larger-than-expected oil production hike in August
Summary Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance agreed on Saturday to increase their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, as they continue to unwind a set of voluntary supply cuts. This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day. In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries' decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to 'a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories.' The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition's formal policy. One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year. Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter. They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June, and July — and is further accelerating the pace of their increases in August. Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran , which threatened both Tehran's supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz. At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiration Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude. (CNBC)
CNBC
05-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
OPEC+ members agree larger-than-expected oil production hike in August
Eight oil-producing nations of the OPEC+ alliance on Saturday agreed to lift their collective crude production by 548,00 barrels per day, as they continue briskly unwinding a set of voluntary supply cuts. This subset of the alliance — comprising heavyweight producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — met digitally earlier in the day. They had been expected to increase their output by a smaller 411,000 barrels per day. In a statement, the OPEC Secretariat attributed the countries' decision to raise August daily output by 548,000 barrels to "a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories." The eight producers have been implementing two sets of voluntary production cuts outside of the broader OPEC+ coalition's formal policy. One, totaling 1.66 million barrels per day, stays in effect until the end of next year. Under the second strategy, the countries reduced their production by an additional 2.2 million barrels per day until the end of the first quarter. They initially set out to boost their production by 137,000 barrels per day every month until September 2026, but only sustained that pace in April. The group then tripled the hike to 411,000 barrels per day in each of May, June and July — and are further accelerating the pace of their increases in August. Oil prices were briefly boosted in recent weeks by the seasonal summer spike in demand and the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, which threatened both Tehran's supplies and raised concerns over potential disruptions of supplies transported through the key Strait of Hormuz. At the end of the Friday session, oil futures settled at $68.30 per barrel for the September-expiry Ice Brent contract and at $66.50 per barrel for front month-August Nymex WTI.
CNBC
24-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Oil sheds 2% as Iran-Israel ceasefire eases concerns over supply, Strait of Hormuz closure
Oil futures fell sharply on Tuesday as a freshly announced Iran-Israel ceasefire began to allay investor concerns over supply and shipping disruptions in the oil-rich Middle East. The Ice Brent contract with August expiry was trading at $69.76 per barrel at 09:09 a.m. London time, down 2.41% from the previous session. The front-month August Nymex WTI contract was at $66.85 per barrel, 2.42% lower from the Monday settlement. Oil prices had added roughly 10% over the mid-June start of Iran-Israel hostilities that were exacerbated in recent days by U.S.' direct military involvement and Iran's retaliatory strike against an American base in Qatar. Crude futures eased following U.S. President Donald Trump's overnight announcement of an Iran-Israel ceasefire despite lingering questions over implementation and the future of Tehran's nuclear program — the key cause of the recent hostilities cited by Israel and the U.S. At risk throughout the offensives were supply in both Iran — which produced 3.3 million barrels per day in May, according to OPEC's monthly oil market report released in June, which cites independent analyst sources — and the broader Middle East region, if the conflict spilled over. Throughout the hostilities, investors also watched whether Iran would proceed with closing the Strait of Hormuz linking the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman — a key route for Iranian and other Middle Eastern shipments, including those of the world's largest crude exporter Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain. Iran's parliament on Sunday approved the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report from Iran's state-owned Press TV that CNBC could not independently verify, though a final decision rested with the country's national security council. "The potential closure of Strait of Hormuz remains a tail risk in our view, but we maintain that oil prices would race past $100/b in such a scenario, due to limited avenues to bypass the narrow passage and the constraints it would pose to the marketability of spare capacity," Barclays analysts said in a Tuesday note, just as Trump announced a tentative ceasefire. They further added that oil prices came under pressure "as the threat of wider regional conflagration did not materialize despite the US action against Iranian nuclear sites." Amid risk to supply, the International Energy Agency previously reassured it had 1.2 billion barrels of emergency stockpiles it could resort to. As part of a strategy decided prior to the Iran-Israel escalations, some producers from the influential OPEC+ alliance have also been raising output and have additional spare volumes that could be brought online.
CNBC
16-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Israel vows Iran will 'pay the price' as attacks continue for a fourth day
Tehran will "pay the price" for its fresh missile onslaught against Israel, the Jewish state's defense minister warned Monday, as markets braced for a fourth day of ramped-up conflict between the regional powers. Fire exchanges have continued since Israel's Friday attack against Iran, with Iranian media reporting Tehran's latest strikes hit Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, home to a major refinery. CNBC has reached out to operator Bazan for comment on the state of operations at the Haifa plant, amid reports of damage to Israel's energy infrastructure. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said overnight it deployed "innovative methods" that "disrupted the enemy's multi-layered defense systems, to the point that the Zionist air defense systems engaged in targeting each other," according to a statement obtained by NBC News. Israel has widely depended on its highly efficient Iron Dome missile defense system to fend off attacks throughout regional conflicts — but even it can be overwhelmed if a large number of projectiles are fired. The fresh hostilities are front-of-mind for investors, who have been weighing the odds of further escalation in the conflict and spillover into the broader oil-rich Middle East, amid concerns over crude supplies and the key shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Oil prices retained the gains of recent days and at 09:19 a.m. London time, Ice Brent futures with August delivery were trading at $73.81 per barrel, down 0.57% from the previous trading session. The Nymex WTI contract with July expiry was at $72.7 per barrel, 0.38% lower. Elsewhere, however, markets showed initial signs of shrugging off the latest hostilities early on Monday. Spot prices for key safe-haven asset gold retreated early morning, down 0.42% to $3,417.83 per ounce after nearly notching a two-year-high earlier in the session, with U.S. gold futures also down 0.65% to $ 3,430.5 Tel Aviv share indices pointed higher, with the blue-chip TA-35 up 0.99% and the wider TA-125 up 1.33%. European stock markets opened higher Monday, meanwhile, and U.S. stock futures were also in the green. Luis Costa, global head of EM sovereign credit at Citigroup Global Markets, signaled the muted reaction could be, in part, attributed to hopes of a brisk resolution to the conflict. "So markets are obviously, you know, bearing in mind all potential scenarios. There are obviously potentially very bad scenarios in this story," he told CNBC's "Europe Early Edition" on Monday. "But there is still a way out in terms of, you know, a faster resolution and bringing Iran to the table, or a short continuation here, of a very surgical and intense strike by the Israeli army." As of Monday morning, Israel's national emergency service Magen David Adom reported four dead and 87 injured following rocket strikes at four sites in "central Israel," reporting collapsed buildings, fire and people trapped under debris. Accusing Tehran of targeting civilians in Israel to prevent the Israel Defense Forces from "continuing the attack that is collapsing its capabilities," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, a close longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a Google-translated social media update that "the residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon." The IDF on Sunday said it had in turn "completed a wide-scale wave of strikes on numerous weapon production sites belonging to the Quds Force, the IRGC and the Iranian military, in Tehran." CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground. The U.S.' response is now in focus, given its close support and arms provision to Israel, the unexpected cancellation of Washington's latest nuclear deal talks with Iran, and President Donald Trump's historically hard-hitting stance against Tehran during his first term. Trump, who has been pushing Iran for a deal over its nuclear program, has weighed in on the conflict, opposing an Israeli proposal to kill Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to NBC News. Discussions about the conflict are expected to take place during the ongoing meeting of the G7, encapsulating Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S., along with the European Union. —
CNBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Oil prices pick up as OPEC+ holds oil quotas ahead of July production review
OPEC+ countries on Wednesday agreed to leave their formal output quotas unchanged, with market focus shifting toward potential increases from an eight-member subset of the alliance that had been carrying out separate voluntary production cuts. The OPEC+ coalition has been operating a spate of formal production agreements that bind all members unanimously, along with two output cuts that are only informally tackled by an eight-member subset of the organization. Under formal policy, the entire OPEC+ group is cutting roughly 2 million barrels per day until the end of 2026. On Wednesday, OPEC+ nations said they agreed to "reaffirm the level of overall crude oil production for OPEC and non-OPEC Participating Countries" as agreed during the alliance's December meeting. Separate from formal policy, OPEC+ heavyweight Russia and Saudi Arabia, alongside Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, are also trimming production by 1.66 million barrels per day until the end of next year, under one opt-in agreement. Until the end of March, these eight members also implemented a second combined 2.2 million-barrel-per day voluntary production decline, which they have begun to gradually unwind in the months since. As of the latest announcements, these nations are set to bring back a combined roughly 1 million barrels per day of their previously cut volumes over April-June and will be assessing further production steps over the weekend. The timing of these hikes has coincided with increasing concern within the OPEC+ group that some members — which have in the past included the likes of Kazakhstan, Iraq and Russia — were not respecting their production quotas. "This group is doing its best, but it's not enough only this group, we need the help of others," UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei said Tuesday in a World Utilities Congress panel moderated by CNBC's Dan Murphy. On Wednesday, OPEC+ nations called on the OPEC Secretariat to assess each country's sustainable production capacity to determine their baselines for 2027 — levels used to calculate coalition members' output quotas under OPEC+ agreements. OPEC+ members will next hold a ministerial meeting on Nov. 30. Oil prices were in positive territory shortly after the ending of the OPEC+ meeting. The Ice Brent contract with July expiry was at $65.06 per barrel at 4:30 p.m. London time, up 1.5% from the Tuesday close price. Front-month July Nymex WTI futures were trading at $61.96 per barrel, up 1.76% from the previous day's settlement. Oil demand typically spikes during the summer with the start of the travel season and additional crude burn to produce electricity for air conditioning needs in several Middle Eastern countries. In a note out earlier this week, UBS Strategist Giovanni Staunovo flagged a "closely balanced oil market" in the first quarter of this year, compared with a vast projected supply surplus. "We expect further demand and supply revisions with more incoming data," Staunovo said. "With demand seasonally rising and the eight OPEC+ member states with additional voluntary cuts likely still adding more barrels to the market in July, we look for oil prices to move sideways in a USD 60-70/bbl range over the coming months." The UAE's al-Mazrouei echoed this sentiment, flagging, "We need to be mindful of the demand. Demand is picking up. And demand is going to surprise us, if we're not investing enough."
