Crude Oil Update:
🔹 Global oil demand growth is materially slowing down 📉 in 2023 Q4 compared to Q3. Demand growth is slowing down this quarter, the International Energy Agency said, and revised down its Q4 consumption growth forecast by nearly 400,000 bpd 🛢, with Europe making up more than half of the downward revision. A deterioration in the macroeconomic outlook led to a downward revision in the IEA's global oil consumption growth forecast.
🔹 The US 🇺🇸 DoE reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stayed the same. Inventories are holding at 351.9 million barrels, with total purchases for the SPR coming in just over 5 million barrels since the Biden Administration began its buyback program. So far, the gov't has bought 9 million barrels of crude in batches of three, the first steps in the refilling of the SPR after drawing over 180 million barrels last year to stabilize fuel prices.
🔹 Russia’s 🇷🇺 crude oil shipments jumped 114,000 bpd, compared to the four-week average to December 3, in the four weeks to December 10, after storms in the Black Sea that had disrupted loadings in November subsided. Analysts and traders indicated that OPEC+ 2.2 million barrel-per-day production cuts in Q1 2024 will be counterbalanced by a potential supply surplus.
🔹Demand for Saudi 🇸🇦crude at Chinese 🇨🇳 refiners is at its lowest since August Earlier last week, Saudi Arabia cut the price of its flagship crude, Arab Light, loading in January for Asia by $0.50 per barrel over the Oman/Dubai average. The Dangote Refinery in Nigeria 🇳🇬, Africa’s biggest, is expected to receive its first of several cargoes of crude oil that would enable it to begin initial runs.
🔹 Global oil demand growth is materially slowing down 📉 in 2023 Q4 compared to Q3. Demand growth is slowing down this quarter, the International Energy Agency said, and revised down its Q4 consumption growth forecast by nearly 400,000 bpd 🛢, with Europe making up more than half of the downward revision. A deterioration in the macroeconomic outlook led to a downward revision in the IEA's global oil consumption growth forecast.
🔹 The US 🇺🇸 DoE reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stayed the same. Inventories are holding at 351.9 million barrels, with total purchases for the SPR coming in just over 5 million barrels since the Biden Administration began its buyback program. So far, the gov't has bought 9 million barrels of crude in batches of three, the first steps in the refilling of the SPR after drawing over 180 million barrels last year to stabilize fuel prices.
🔹 Russia’s 🇷🇺 crude oil shipments jumped 114,000 bpd, compared to the four-week average to December 3, in the four weeks to December 10, after storms in the Black Sea that had disrupted loadings in November subsided. Analysts and traders indicated that OPEC+ 2.2 million barrel-per-day production cuts in Q1 2024 will be counterbalanced by a potential supply surplus.
🔹Demand for Saudi 🇸🇦crude at Chinese 🇨🇳 refiners is at its lowest since August Earlier last week, Saudi Arabia cut the price of its flagship crude, Arab Light, loading in January for Asia by $0.50 per barrel over the Oman/Dubai average. The Dangote Refinery in Nigeria 🇳🇬, Africa’s biggest, is expected to receive its first of several cargoes of crude oil that would enable it to begin initial runs.