China’s industrial capacity utilization rate hits 74.3% in Q1

RIYADH: Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Monday as concerns about rising interest rates, the global economy and the outlook for fuel demand outweighed support from the prospect of tighter supplies by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and its allies, known as OPEC+.  

Brent crude slipped 98 cents, or 1.20 percent, to $80.68 a barrel at 10.10 a.m. Saudi time, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $76.92 a barrel, also down 95 cents, or 1.22 percent lower. 

Both contracts fell more than 5 percent last week, their first weekly drop in five, as US implied gasoline demand fell from a year ago, fueling worries of a recession at the world’s top oil consumer. 

Norway’s oil fund to vote against climate resolution at BP 

Norway’s $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund, one of the world’s largest investors, said it will vote against a resolution calling on British oil major BP to adopt tougher greenhouse gas targets. 

While BP already aims to reduce emissions, the motion filed by activist group Follow This ahead of an April 27 shareholder vote calls on the company to align with the Paris climate deal’s goal to limit global warming. 

Norges Bank Investment Management, which operates the Norwegian fund, said last year that it plans to take a tougher line on companies that do not adopt credible climate plans. 

It did not give a reason for rejecting the motion. But the fund has said in the past that while it sometimes backs environmental, social and governance proposals put forward by activist groups, it carefully judges each case on its merits. 

Follow This in an emailed statement said NBIM as a major investor should show leadership on climate issues. 

“NBIM failed the first real test of its new climate voting policy,” Follow This founder Mark van Baal wrote. 

The Norwegian fund, itself built on oil and gas revenue, owned 2.73 percent of BP’s shares worth some $2.8 billion at the end of 2022. 

BP’s board has recommended that shareholders vote against the resolution saying it was “unclear” what it wanted the company to do. 

Investor advisers ISS and Glass Lewis also recommended BP shareholders oppose the resolution, while Britain’s Local Authority Pension Fund Forum asked investors to back it. 

In February, BP rowed back on plans to slash its 2019 oil and gas output levels by 40 percent by 2030, and now it envisages a 25 percent cut, angering climate activists. 

Russian oil slashes OPEC’s share of Indian market to 22-year low 

The share of OPEC's India’s oil imports fell at the fastest pace in 2022/23 to the lowest in at least 22 years, as intake of cheaper Russian oil surged, data obtained from industry sources show, and the major producers’ share could shrink further this year. 

Members of the OPEC, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, saw their share of India’s oil market slide to 59 percent in the fiscal year to March 2023, from about 72 percent in 2021-2022, a Reuters analysis of the data that dates back to 2001-2002 showed. 

Russia overtook Iraq for the first time to emerge as the top oil supplier to India, pushing Saudi Arabia down to No. 3 in the last fiscal year, the data showed. 

OPEC’s share shrank as India, which in the past rarely bought Russian oil due to high freight costs, is now the top oil client for Russian seaborne oil, rejected by Western nations following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

India shipped in about 1.6 million barrels per day of Russian oil in 2022/23, the data showed, about 23 percent of its overall 4.65 million bpd imports. 

(With inputs from Reuters)