Crude oil inventories in the United States saw a large increase of 6.2 million barrels during the week ending March 28, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday. Crude oil prices were trading up prior to the crude data release by the U.S. Energy Information Administration after the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build of 6.037 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories amid a small gasoline draw. The Brent benchmark was trading up 0.01% at 10:28 a.m. ET at $74.50—a…

Russia has ordered a 90-day halt to one of several berths at the port of Novorossiysk, its key Black Sea oil export route, a day after it ordered the temporary shutdown of two of three moorings at the key export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, announced on Wednesday that the ongoing safety checks from Russia’s transportation authority resulted in an order for a 90-day halt to oil loading at berth 8 at the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP). Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision…

Russia has ordered a 90-day halt to one of several berths at the port of Novorossiysk, its key Black Sea oil export route, a day after it ordered the temporary shutdown of two of three moorings at the key export terminal for Kazakhstan’s oil. Transneft, the Russian pipeline monopoly, announced on Wednesday that the ongoing safety checks from Russia’s transportation authority resulted in an order for a 90-day halt to oil loading at berth 8 at the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP). Russia’s Federal Agency for Transport Supervision…

Global seaborne crude oil flows rose in March from February, just ahead of the supply increase coming from OPEC+ in April, oil flows tracking data by Bloomberg showed on Wednesday. Global crude exports averaged 39.92 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up by 119,000 bpd from February levels, according to the observed shipments tracked by Bloomberg. Flows from Brazil, Canada, and Russia jumped last month from a month earlier, while crude flows from the United States and the North Sea saw large decreases. Shipments from the world’s top…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

Energy ministers of the OPEC+ producers will discuss in a Thursday call the importance of sticking to the oil production quotas under the deal, delegates from the alliance told Bloomberg on Wednesday. In every press release for years, the OPEC+ group has been stressing how important sticking to the quotas is. Overproduction has partly negated the bullish effects of the cuts on the oil market. The alliance is beginning the easing of the cuts this month, adding 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to combined production. However, all OPEC+ calculations…

As Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with its ambitious Vision 2030 plan to build huge futuristic cities and resorts, the world’s top crude oil exporter will need to borrow more money on the debt markets as oil prices continue to linger at levels of about $20 per barrel lower than the Saudi fiscal breakeven oil price. The Kingdom, the leader and main architect of the OPEC+ production cuts, is starting to ease a small part of these cuts on April 1, per the group’s latest plan to add 138,000 barrels per day (bpd) to supply this month. Rising…

The global rollout of 5G wireless networks over the past five or so years has been a bit of a mixed bag of success. On one hand, 5G has achieved significant advancements, notably in faster speeds, lower latency, and increased network capacity, enabling new applications like enhanced streaming, gaming, and remote medical services, as well as supporting industries like smart cities and autonomous vehicles. While 4G usually tops out at ~100 megabits per second (Mbps), 5G pushes that to a sizzling 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), with latencies of 1…

Uranium purchases in the United States have slowed considerably as power utilities process the effect of President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive in the market—and that offensive may yet transform that same market. Bloomberg reported this week that uranium purchases by U.S. power utilities had dropped by 50% ahead of the 10% import tariff that Trump imposed on Canadian energy exports. The publication noted that those power utilities source more than a quarter of their uranium from Canada, which makes the potential impact of the tariffs…

I have said in recent posts that the world economy is hitting resource limits of many kinds. These limits include oil, coal, and other sources of energy, including uranium, used as a fuel for nuclear power generation. Because of these limits, the world economy is being forced to shrink back. In my opinion, the direction it is headed in is toward smaller, mostly less-advanced, more independent, economies. This change is also likely to lead to various types of financial collapse for many of today’s Advanced Economies. Per-capita…

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 6.037 million barrels for the week ending March 28, after a 4.6 million barrel drop in the prior week. So far this year, crude oil inventories have climbed nearly 23 million barrels, according to Oilprice calculations of API data. Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed 0.3 million barrels again to 396.4 million barrels in the week ending March 28.…

The upcoming European Union-Central Asia summit, to be held April 3-4 in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, is seen by some European observers as a potential watershed moment that can establish Brussels’ Global Gateway strategy as a genuine competitor to China’s Belt & Road initiative for regional influence. Initial responses to a pre-summit Central Asian tour by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, however, indicate that Central Asian leaders are cautious about the EU’s bid to raise its regional profile. Kallas made a lightning…

The latest S&P Global’s UK Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) shows that UK manufacturing’s woes have deepened. S&P Global’s latest PMI survey, which asks around 600 industrial companies about their performances, suggests that manufacturing is again in the downturn following a poor start to the year.  The latest figure showed that it decreased to 44.9, which was slightly better than the figure of 44.6 that economists had predicted.  This was the lowest reading in 17 months, compared to an average of 51.7…

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced its crude oil production in March, ahead of its planned production increase for May, a new Bloomberg survey showed on Tuesday. OPEC reduced its crude oil production for March to an average of 27.43 million barrels per day—a reduction of 110,000 bpd from the prior month. The reduction comes as OPEC pushes its members into tighter compliance with their production quotas. According to the survey, Nigeria saw the largest decrease in production, by 50,000 bpd, to an average of 1.5…

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced its crude oil production in March, ahead of its planned production increase for May, a new Bloomberg survey showed on Tuesday. OPEC reduced its crude oil production for March to an average of 27.43 million barrels per day—a reduction of 110,000 bpd from the prior month. The reduction comes as OPEC pushes its members into tighter compliance with their production quotas. According to the survey, Nigeria saw the largest decrease in production, by 50,000 bpd, to an average of 1.5…

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced its crude oil production in March, ahead of its planned production increase for May, a new Bloomberg survey showed on Tuesday. OPEC reduced its crude oil production for March to an average of 27.43 million barrels per day—a reduction of 110,000 bpd from the prior month. The reduction comes as OPEC pushes its members into tighter compliance with their production quotas. According to the survey, Nigeria saw the largest decrease in production, by 50,000 bpd, to an average of 1.5…

Via Metal Miner   Over the last ten years, industrial metal prices have gone on a wild ride, rising, falling and rising again, thanks to everything from global economic swings to supply chain hiccups and geopolitical drama. If you’re in manufacturing, investing, or policy, keeping tabs on these price trends isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. Steel Historical Price Trends Steel is the backbone of construction and manufacturing, so it’s no surprise that its price moves with global demand, production capacity and trade…

One week after the Kremlin and the White House announced a deal that aimed to halt fighting between Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea region and pave the way for a wider cease-fire, the effort is stumbling. In fact, the wider attempt to pause Europe's largest land war since World War II is also under severe strain, pulled in three different directions by three different presidents with three competing priorities. On the battlefield and across Ukraine, meanwhile, fighting and air attacks continue, as Russia pounded Ukraine's second-largest city…

OPEC+ is expected to agree on a plan that would see production for the group increase in May, OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The OPEC+ group, comprised of the 12 OPEC members—Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Venezuela, Gabon, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, UAE, Congo, and Nigeria—and non-OPEC member organizations Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Oman, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Malaysia, South Sudan, Brunei, and Sudan—produce more than 45 million barrels of crude oil per day—or 59% of global oil production. The…