BKR Rig Count | The total active drilling rigs in the United States decreased by 2 last week to 588. Oil rigs remained flat at 488, and gas rigs decreased by 1 to 96. Rig count in the Permian Basin increased by 1 at 307 | Sept 20 | BKR NAM Rig Count
US Crude Inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 1.6 MMbbl to 417.5 MMbbl (about 4% below the 5y average for this time of year). On the products side, gasoline increased by 0.1 MMbbl (slightly below the 5y average.) Distillate fuels increased by 0.1 MMbbl (9% below the 5y average). Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 3.4 MMbbl | Sept 13 | EIA Weekly Report
The Federal Reserve Lowered its Benchmark Interest Rate by a Half Percentage Point, to a range of 4.75% to 5%, in an aggressive start to a policy shift aimed at bolstering the US labor market. “Additional adjustments” to rates based on “incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks” will be considered. Inflation “remains somewhat elevated” and job gains have slowed | Sept 18 | Bloomberg
Crude Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, Are Down 40% and Well Within “Tank Bottom” Levels | Supplies currently sit at 22.7 million barrels, within a half-a-million barrels of a decade seasonal low set in 2018. The drawdown was exacerbated this year as the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline shifts Canadian oil supplies onto the country’s Pacific Coast and away from the US Gulf Coast. European demand for US crude is also pulling barrels out of storage at Cushing, particularly since buyers are on the hunt for similar grades after supply disruptions in Libya. “With Libya risks, I tend to think storage will stay at tank bottoms in the near term, and the market will make WTI too expensive to export” said Scott Shelton, energy specialist at TP ICAP Group | Sept 19 | Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia Sees July Oil Exports Hitting Almost One-Year Low | The kingdom saw its crude exports fall by around 5.1% from 6.1mbbl/d in June. Meanwhile, its production rose very slightly to 8.9mbbl/d. However, Saudi refineries' crude throughput fell slightly to 2.4mbbl/d. In October, China is likely to see a 7% monthly increase in Saudi Arabian oil imports as Saudi Aramco drops its official Asia selling price for its Arab Light crude, making imports more attractive | Sept 20 | GlobalData
Europe Narrows Opening for Continued Russian Gas Transit across Ukraine | European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson has told Gazprom's remaining customers in Slovakia, Austria and Italy to brace for a cutoff of Russian pipeline gas imports in January. Ukraine is in talks about supplying Azeri gas to Europe through its network of pipelines but hasn’t yet reached an agreement. Kyiv and Moscow are both willing to find a solution that could involve swapping supply with Azerbaijan. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July said a deal to replace Russian gas with Azeri supplies was “one of the proposals” being discussed | Sept 19 | Upstream, Bloomberg
India is Prepared to Keep Buying Oil from Russian Companies That Are Allowed to Make Such Sales, Since Prices are Cheap, India’s Oil Minister Singh Puri stated. Russian crude oil accounted for 44% of India’s overall imports in July, just over 2 mbbl/d, more than 4% higher than the previous month and 12% above the year-ago figure. China’s oil imports from Russia in July were 1.76mbbl/d. In February, the IEA said India is forecast to be the single-largest source of global oil demand growth from 2023 to 2030, narrowly ahead of China. The country’s demand will reach 6.6mbbl/d in 2030, up from 5.5mbbl/d in 2023. Conversely, India won’t buy liquefied natural gas from a project in Russia that is sanctioned by the US. Puri stated, “If the LNG from Russia is from a sanctioned facility, we won’t buy” | Sept 19 | GlobalData, Bloomberg
EU Goes on the Attack Against Russia’s Shadow Fleet of Tankers | According to David O'Sullivan, the EU's Special Representative for Sanctions, the continuing operation of a shadow fleet is a major contributing factor aiding Russia’s continuing transportation and sale of hydrocarbons. EU is contemplating expanding its sanctions regime against Russia to encompass the foreign subsidiaries of European companies | Sept 19 | GlobalData
Egypt’s natural gas production will return to normal levels by June 2025 | The drop in local supply is a result of foreign oil companies not being able to maintain fields due to arrears owed to them by the government. About a quarter of the backlog had been cleared by July, as government finances improved following a $57 billion bailout led by the United Arab Emirates and the International Monetary Fund | Sept 19 | Bloomberg
Methane releases from some of the world’s major fossil fuel hubs are continuing to rise | Emissions of the gas across 13 large fossil fuel basins in nine countries increased 7% last year from 2020 levels, according to researcher Kayrros SAS, which assessed satellite observations | Sept 19 | Bloomberg
