An unexpected rise in US oil inventories
An unexpected rise in US oil inventories: Yesterday, Tuesday, April 27, 2021,
the American Petroleum Institute announced a significant increase in crude oil inventories,
which reached 4.319 million barrels for the week ending April 23rd.
Analysts had expected inventories to increase by only 659,000 barrels this week.
The American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute announced an increase in oil inventories by 436 thousand barrels in the previous week
after analysts had expected a decline of 2.860 million barrels.
The API also announced that gasoline inventories fell by 1.288 million barrels for the week ending April 23
– after the previous week’s withdrawal of 1.617 million barrels.
Analysts had expected an increase of 508 thousand barrels for this week.
Distillate stocks were subject to a decrease in inventories this week by 2.417 million barrels over the course of the week,
after last week’s increase of 655 thousand barrels.
Oil prices this week
Oil trading prices rose the day before the data was released despite the huge increase in the number of people infected with Coronavirus in India,
the third-largest importer of oil in the world, after it was decided during the OPEC meeting to cancel
the regular ministerial meeting that was scheduled to be held on Wednesday,
with a recommendation, No changes were made to the group’s production share in May.
Before midday, WTI was trading at $ 62.87, or an increase of 1.55% on the day and about $50 a barrel higher than at this time last week.
Brent crude was up at $ 66.39 a barrel, or 1.13% higher for the day.
After the data was released, at midday, WTI was trading at $ 63.24 while Brent crude was trading at $ 66.75 a barrel.
Weekly production rates
While crude oil inventories rose significantly this week, US oil production stood at an average of 11.0 million barrels per day for the week ending April 16,
according to the latest data released by the Energy Information Administration.
Cushing’s inventory numbers also increased by 742,000 barrels.
OPEC maintains its steadiness to reduce production
The OPEC group will not hold a full ministerial meeting on Wednesday as scheduled,
as agreed by delegates in the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee in their meeting yesterday,
which indicates confidence in the current plans to ease production cuts as of May despite the high cases of Coronavirus in India,
the main petroleum importer.
Oil prices rose on Tuesday morning due to news issued by Vienna indicating that OPEC believes
that the market will be able to absorb the increase in oil supply as of 1st May,
despite the increasing cases of Coronavirus infection in the third-largest oil importer in the world, India.
In the previous ministerial meeting, OPEC decided in early April to gradually return more than
one million barrels per day to the market during the period from May to July.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia will also begin to cancel its additional unilateral cut of 1 million barrels per day,
starting with an increase in production by 250,000 barrels per day in May.
OPEC said that the Secretary-General “highlighted the positive path of the global economy,
along with stimulus measures, progress in the field of vaccinations and the summer travel season,
as driving forces to improve the outlook for oil demand in the second half of the year.”
After this month’s meeting was abandoned, OPEC ministers are scheduled to hold their next meeting in early June.
Exxon’s discovery of a new oil area
ExxonMobil and its partner Hess announced the discovery of a new oil point in the Stabroek Block,
a discovery that would add to the 9 billion barrels of oil equivalent that have already been announced in more than a dozen discoveries in the region.
Exxon said in a statement that the latest oil discovery was made at the Uaru-2 well,
which showed high-quality reservoirs carrying oil including newly identified periods under the original Uaru-1 discovery,
which was discovered in January 2020, which is the sixteenth discovery at Stabroek Block.
Exxon and its Stabroek Block partners made more than a dozen important discoveries in the region in less than five years,
making Guyana the newest oil-producing country in December 2019.
Exxon and Hesse expect to implement at least six projects online by 2027 and see the possibility of up to 10 floating ships
for storing and offloading production to develop existing recoverable resources offshore in Guyana.
Last month
Last month, Guyana President Irfan Ali said that the first phase of the offshore LIZA project – the first oil-producing project in Guyana led by ExxonMobil –
had reached its full planned production capacity of about 130,000 barrels per day (BPD).
The second phase of the LIZA project is designed to pump up to 220,000 barrels per day (BPD) with a floating, production,
storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), with startup expected in the middle of next year, Exxon says.
Guyana is one of the top priorities in the U.S. supermajor’s strategy to focus on high-return and cash-generating projects
that would allow it to grow its dividend through 2025.
Last September, Exxon said it had made the final investment decision on the Payara offshore field in Guyana,
expecting Payara to yield up to 220,000 BPD of crude when commercial production begins in 2024.
The attack on an oil tanker on the Syrian coast
The Syrian Ministry of Oil stated through the media, that a drone attack set fire to an oil tanker close to the Syrian coast,
and the Ministry suspects that the attack came from the Lebanese coast.
A news channel quoted an Iranian TV station report as saying that the tanker was Iranian, suffering some losses.
However, another Iranian media outlet, Tasnim Agency, said that “the accident happened to another ship …
and it has nothing to do with a ship carrying Iranian cargo.”
TankerTrackers
TankerTrackers .com confirmed that the tanker that was struck was not an Iranian ship, but a Lebanese ship.
The tanker that was seen burning today near the coast of Benias is not an Iranian ship,
but a Beirut-registered oil tanker called WISDOM.
The Iranian supertanker “Arman 114” (like ADRIAN DARYA-1) helped unload 300-350 thousand barrels at one time. Due to depth restrictions.”
The Syrian media initially expressed doubts that the attacks were carried out by the Israeli army,
but Israeli media reported that the fire on the tanker was not the result of an Israeli attack.
With regard to human losses, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at its headquarters in Britain
that at least three people were killed in the attack.
The “Times of Israel” newspaper said the fire was quickly extinguished, and there were no reports of injuries.
Wall Street
The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the Israeli army had been targeting Iranian oil tankers heading to Syria on several occasions,
quoting officials in America and the Middle East as saying that Israel is concerned that oil profits finance regional extremism.
Iran is the largest supplier of crude oil to Syria.
Israel has been fighting Iran’s influence in the Middle East for decades,
and now with Iran’s alliance with Syria, Syria has become a target of repeated attacks from Israel.
An unexpected rise in US oil inventories