“World Oil”: “OPEC +” focuses on ensuring stable supplies to the...

An oil report issued by “World Oil” confirmed that “OPEC +” focuses on ensuring stable supplies of crude to global markets and does not target a specific price, which was emphasized by Iraqi Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar, explaining that the group of producers aims to add 400,000 barrels per day targeted. Each month, it will review the pace of production increases in the first quarter of 2022.
He indicated that there is concern that some “OPEC +” countries will not be able to achieve the monthly increases they pledged, as countries such as Angola and Nigeria are struggling to achieve the goals, pointing out that the consuming countries, including the United States and India, demanded that the “OPEC +” producers pump more to calm the Prices have jumped this year.
The report quoted the Iraqi minister as saying: “OPEC’s policy is not related to lowering or raising prices, but rather it is about achieving stability in energy supplies, stressing that OPEC’s goal is to prevent prices from collapsing and there is no goal to reach a specific price.”
He stated that “OPEC +” is restoring the production that it was in last year when the Corona virus crisis killed demand. However, the “OPEC +” alliance is only gradually restoring supplies, justifying this that caution is still necessary with continued risks to global consumption.
Volatility continued in the global crude oil markets, as the two major crudes, “Brent and US”, witnessed a decline for the third week in a row, under pressure from the dollar’s strength, due to speculations that the administration of US President Joe Biden might release quantities of oil from the strategic stockpile to calm prices. On a weekly basis, the price of Brent crude fell 0.7 percent, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6 percent, while the “OPEC +” group of producers continues to apply supply restrictions with slight increases in December of 400,000 barrels. Daily, which has been applied since last August on a monthly basis, due to market uncertainty, lack of investment and the difficulty of meeting the agreed quotas.
For its part, the international “Oil Price” report stated that crude oil prices were hovering within the range of 80-85 dollars a barrel, but they are currently suffering from their third weekly decline in a row, in addition to the decline in the futures markets, where many trends indicate more weakness. in the crude oil market.
The report expected that the administration of US President Joe Biden would take a decision on more SPR releases in the coming days. In addition, the prospects for demand were slightly strained recently, as “OPEC” lowered its demand forecast for the fourth quarter of 2021 by 330,000 barrels per day.
He added that the factors curbing the gains in crude oil prices also include the rise of the US dollar, according to the inverse relationship between them.
The report pointed out that there are doubts about the ability of shale oil rigs in the United States to help prevent the energy crisis in light of the caution of American production and its focus on compensating shareholders, pointing to other parallel production difficulties located in the “OPEC +” countries where Nigeria seeks – for example. Example – to obtain foreign aid to stop the oil spill.
On the other hand, with regard to prices at the end of last week, oil prices fell at the end of the week’s trading, and erased the gains of the previous session due to fears that the Federal Reserve will accelerate the pace of interest rate hike plans to curb inflation.
Brent crude futures fell 70 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $82.17 a barrel upon settlement, and US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 80 cents, equivalent to 1 percent, to $80.79 a barrel upon settlement.
On Thursday, “OPEC” lowered its forecast for global demand for the fourth quarter by 330,000 barrels per day from last month’s expectations, as higher energy prices impeded the course of economic recovery processes from the pandemic. “OPEC” and its allies led by Russia “OPEC +” agreed last week to stick to plans to gradually increase production by 400,000 barrels per day each month. The lifting of travel restrictions by the United States and more indications of a global recovery after the pandemic boosted demand expectations, while supply remained tight.
The two crudes witnessed a decline for the third week in a row, under pressure from the strength of the dollar, due to speculations that the administration of US President Joe Biden might release quantities of oil from the US strategic stockpile to calm prices. On a weekly basis, the price of Brent crude fell 0.7 percent, while US West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.6 percent, and despite the presence of positive indicators on the demand side, with a rapid recovery of air travel from the impact of the pandemic, the tightening of monetary policies and the winter that is about to dominate On the northern half of the world they will act as inhibitors. On the other hand, the report of the American drilling activities of “Baker Hughes” company for this week stated that drilling activity in the United States continued to rise, with an increase of six rigs in the number of active drilling rigs this week.
The report said the total number of rigs is now 556 – a number 244 more than this time last year, yet active rigs are still hundreds less than the 790 inactive rigs that were digging in the pre-Covid world.
He stated that in the United States the number of rigs rose this week to 454 – an increase of four rigs from last week and an increase of 218 rigs since this time last year, and the number of gas rigs increased by 2 to 102, while the various rigs remained unchanged at zero.
He pointed out that the Energy Information Administration’s estimates of oil production in the United States for the week ending on November 5 remained stable at 11.5 million barrels per day, as oil production is still well below the record level of 13.1 million barrels per day recorded last year before the epidemic spread in United State.
The report noted an increase in the total number of Canadian rigs by eight, explaining that active oil and gas rigs in Canada are now recorded at 168, an increase of 79 over the year, pointing to an increase in the number of rigs in the Permian Basin by 1 this week with the addition of 118 rigs since last year. The rig count in the country’s second most prolific basin, Eagle Ford, added one rig this week while the total rig count in the Permian now stands at 272, with a total of 41 rigs in Eagle Ford.