Crude Oil Price

( Kitco News ) - Gold prices are modestly lower in early U.S. trading Friday, but silver prices are posting decent gains. Look for selling interest to be limited in both metals heading into a long U.S. holiday weekend. December gold futures were last down $1.60 an ounce at 1,535.30. December Comex silver prices were last up $0.162 at $18.485 an ounce. Asian and European stock markets mostly higher overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward solidly higher openings when the New York day session begins, following strong gains posted Thursday. Risk appetite has increased late this week on notions the U.S.-China trade war may have ratcheted down a bit after reports surfaced out of China Thursday that the nation says it is not interested in escalating the trade war with the U.S. and that both countries are still in communication on the matter. Still, new U.S. tariffs on China kick in on Sunday. Reports overnight said Hong Kong police have arrested at least three prominent activi

( Kitco News ) - Gold prices are modestly up and hit a 6.5-year high in overnight trading, while the silver market sees solid gains and hit a two-year high. Geopolitics is on the front burner of the market place this week, which is helping to lift the safe-haven metals. Their technical postures are also fully bullish, which continues to invite the chart-based buyers. December gold futures were last up $2.20 an ounce at 1,539.60. September Comex silver prices were last up $0.207 at $17.62 an ounce. The unexpected twists and turns in the U.S.-China trade war continue, as President Trump early Monday morning said Chinese trade officials called U.S. trade officials Sunday evening to restart discussions. Trump said China “wants to make a deal” and “that’s a great thing.” Chinese officials, when questioned on the matter, were murky on whether a telephone call actually took place. Still, the gold market backed way down from its overnight high of $1,565.00, basis December futures. Meant

OPEC’s production increased in August thanks to Iraq and Nigeria a Reuters survey found on Friday. OPEC’s August production has been estimated at 29.61 million barrels per day, which is 80,000 barrels per day over July’s production level. The production increase is surprising, given that Iran and Venezuela are producing less not by choice, and continue to face uphill battles when it comes to maintaining their oil production. Saudi Arabia, too, over complied with the production cut deal again as expected, but it raised production for August slightly over July. Overall, the group is still over complying with the production quotas. This brings OPEC’s compliance for August is now estimated at 136%, no thanks to Iraq and Nigeria, who lifted production by 80,000 barrels per day and 60,000 barrels per day, respectively. And even though Saudi Arabia is still over complying, it lifted production in August to produce 9.63 million barrels per day. While Iraq, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia incre

OPEC’s production increased in August thanks to Iraq and Nigeria a Reuters survey found on Friday. OPEC’s August production has been estimated at 29.61 million barrels per day, which is 80,000 barrels per day over July’s production level. The production increase is surprising, given that Iran and Venezuela are producing less not by choice, and continue to face uphill battles when it comes to maintaining their oil production. Saudi Arabia, too, over complied with the production cut deal again as expected, but it raised production for August slightly over July. Overall, the group is still over complying with the production quotas. This brings OPEC’s compliance for August is now estimated at 136%, no thanks to Iraq and Nigeria, who lifted production by 80,000 barrels per day and 60,000 barrels per day, respectively. And even though Saudi Arabia is still over complying, it lifted production in August to produce 9.63 million barrels per day. While Iraq, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia incre

by  Matthew V. Veazey | Rigzone Staff | Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Both the WTI and Brent contract prices finished higher during midweek trading. The October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil contract settled at $55.78 per barrel, reflecting an 85-cent gain for the day. The light crude marker peaked at $56.75 and bottomed out at $55.34. “October WTI remains in the congestion range that it has been in since earlier this month from $52.85 to $57.40,” Steve Blair, senior account executive with the RCG Division of Marex Spectron, told Rigzone. Blair noted that Tuesday’s American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly U.S. oil inventories report showed a much larger than expected 11.1 million-barrel drawdown in crude stocks. He said the big draw prompted a “quick and sharp 50-cent rally in the WTI in the first 10 minutes after the report was released and was up 75 cents within 30 minutes.” Wednesday morning’s weekly inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Admin

by  Matthew V. Veazey | Rigzone Staff | Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Both the WTI and Brent contract prices finished higher during midweek trading. The October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil contract settled at $55.78 per barrel, reflecting an 85-cent gain for the day. The light crude marker peaked at $56.75 and bottomed out at $55.34. “October WTI remains in the congestion range that it has been in since earlier this month from $52.85 to $57.40,” Steve Blair, senior account executive with the RCG Division of Marex Spectron, told Rigzone. Blair noted that Tuesday’s American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly U.S. oil inventories report showed a much larger than expected 11.1 million-barrel drawdown in crude stocks. He said the big draw prompted a “quick and sharp 50-cent rally in the WTI in the first 10 minutes after the report was released and was up 75 cents within 30 minutes.” Wednesday morning’s weekly inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Admin

by  Matthew V. Veazey | Rigzone Staff | Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Both the WTI and Brent contract prices finished higher during midweek trading. The October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil contract settled at $55.78 per barrel, reflecting an 85-cent gain for the day. The light crude marker peaked at $56.75 and bottomed out at $55.34. “October WTI remains in the congestion range that it has been in since earlier this month from $52.85 to $57.40,” Steve Blair, senior account executive with the RCG Division of Marex Spectron, told Rigzone. Blair noted that Tuesday’s American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly U.S. oil inventories report showed a much larger than expected 11.1 million-barrel drawdown in crude stocks. He said the big draw prompted a “quick and sharp 50-cent rally in the WTI in the first 10 minutes after the report was released and was up 75 cents within 30 minutes.” Wednesday morning’s weekly inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Admin

A worker on a an oil drill near New Town, North Dakota. Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images The oil market is already struggling with too much supply, and the U.S. is about to flood the world with a lot more. In the last decade, the U.S. has more than doubled oil production to 12.3 million barrels a day, making it the world's largest producer. But the infrastructure needed to transport that crude out of Texas oil fields and onto the world market has been lacking. This month marks a big change for the industry with the start of the Plains All American Pipeline's Cactus II, a 670,000 barrel a day pipeline , connecting the Permian Basin to Corpus Christi, Texas, and from there to the world. That pipeline, and another, named Epic, are just the start, with more to follow. The new pipelines are expected to take more Texas crude to the Gulf Coast, and from there it can be shipped out to the world, but the world is now well supplied, and even more U.S. oil could help

Editor's Note: The article was updated to reflect higher gold prices. ( Kitco News ) - Gold prices are modestly higher in early U.S. trading Thursday, but silver continues to power ahead with sharp gains to hit another more-than-two-year high overnight. Safe-haven demand and technical buying continue to be featured in both metals. December gold futures were last up $4.60 an ounce at 1,553.70. December Comex silver prices were last up $0.279 at $18.74 an ounce. A slightly weaker than expected U.S. gross domestic product report also landed in the camp of the precious metals market bulls. The second estimate of second-quarter GDP was up 2.0%, year-on-year, versus up 2.1% in the initial reading. However, the 2.0% print was right in line with market expectations. Asian and European stock markets were mixed to higher overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward solidly higher openings when the New York day session begins. Risk appetite suddenly up-ticked overnight when news

Oil futures fell on Friday, with US crude down nearly 3% ahead of a hurricane near the Florida coast that could dampen demand, but prices were still headed for the biggest weekly increase since early July, boosted by an easing of US-China trade rhetoric. Brent crude futures fell 65 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $60.43 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled down $1.61, or 2.8%, at $55.10 a barrel. Hurricane Dorian gained strength as it crept closer to Florida's coast on Friday, raising the risk that parts of the US state will be hit by strong winds, a storm surge and heavy rain for a prolonged period after it makes landfall early next week. "The latest modeling has Hurricane Dorian avoiding the Gulf of Mexico, while raking the entire state of Florida, turning it into a demand destruction event for the energy market rather than a supply disruption event," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital in New York. US crude oil output fell for a

The trade war continues to weigh heavily on the oil market as forecasts paint a gloomier picture for oil prices with every passing week. This week, analysts have again revised downward their oil prices as they see an economic slowdown as a result of the trade war. OPEC’s over-compliance with the production quota and tensions in the Middle East over Iran's oil sanctions have been an insufficient catalyst for propping up oil prices. OPEC Can’t Wait for the Trade War to Be Over OPEC still finds itself in rather a tight spot wedged between Brent crude prices that are almost back to where they started at the beginning of the year and its own production throttling that has not packed enough of a punch to boost oil prices. OPEC’s been down this road before. Remember the start of its production cuts in late 2016? Brent was trading around $56 at the time. One cut and two extensions later and we’ve gained $3 per barrel. But what has OPEC lost? Market share. Saudi Arabia’s, mostly - and we

Coming up .. what to watch in the oil patch - Apache is gearing up to drill its first exploration well in Block 58, offshore Suriname. This is slated to be drilling sometime around mid-September. The Noble Sam Croft is the contracted drillship, and presently it is drilling off the coast of Louisiana at Gladden Deep. Suriname shares a massive basin with Guyana and is hoping to replicate Exxon’s series of 13 discoveries in Guyana. Apache’s block 58 is adjacent to Exxon’s Hairmara find. - Right next door in Guyana, HESS has announced the arrival of the Liza Destiny at the Stabroek Block (the scene of the Exxon/Hess discoveries). This is Guyana’s first oil production vessel and is definitely worth keeping an eye on progress. This means that the development of Liza Phase 1 is on track to start by Q1 2020, with plans to produce 120,000 gross barrels of oil per day. - Watch Kosmos Energy’s progress on an agreement to sell down stakes in projects off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal (pa

October West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are in a position to finish higher for the week after a weak trade on Monday. The weakness at the start of the week was fueled by follow-through selling related to the escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China from August 23. By the end of the week, a cooling-off between the two economic powerhouses was one of the factors underpinning the weekly higher close. The market was also supported by two huge weekly inventory drawdowns as reported by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday. Both events served as proof that the OPEC-led production cuts are working to trim U.S. support despite record output. Trade Talks Resume The United States and China verified on Thursday that they will resume trade talks on September 4. The news provided some relief to traders worried about a plunge in future demand growth. President Trump said on Thursday th

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Oil falls ahead of hurricane but posts weekly gain as U.S.-China trade war eases    Nasdaq By Stephanie Kelly. NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Oil futures fell on Friday, with U.S. crude down nearly 3% ahead of a hurricane near the Florida coast that ... https://ift.tt/2HBn5Wu

October West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are in a position to finish higher for the week after a weak trade on Monday. The weakness at the start of the week was fueled by follow-through selling related to the escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China from August 23. By the end of the week, a cooling-off between the two economic powerhouses was one of the factors underpinning the weekly higher close. The market was also supported by two huge weekly inventory drawdowns as reported by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday. Both events served as proof that the OPEC-led production cuts are working to trim U.S. support despite record output. Trade Talks Resume The United States and China verified on Thursday that they will resume trade talks on September 4. The news provided some relief to traders worried about a plunge in future demand growth. President Trump said on Thursday th

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Oil falls ahead of hurricane but posts weekly gain as U.S.-China trade war eases    Nasdaq By Stephanie Kelly. NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Oil futures fell on Friday, with U.S. crude down nearly 3% ahead of a hurricane near the Florida coast that ... https://ift.tt/2HBn5Wu

October West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are in a position to finish higher for the week after a weak trade on Monday. The weakness at the start of the week was fueled by follow-through selling related to the escalation of trade tensions between the United States and China from August 23. By the end of the week, a cooling-off between the two economic powerhouses was one of the factors underpinning the weekly higher close. The market was also supported by two huge weekly inventory drawdowns as reported by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday. Both events served as proof that the OPEC-led production cuts are working to trim U.S. support despite record output. Trade Talks Resume The United States and China verified on Thursday that they will resume trade talks on September 4. The news provided some relief to traders worried about a plunge in future demand growth. President Trump said on Thursday th

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