Oil Rises After Russia Says Open to OPEC Meeting

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2016/02/03/oil-rises-after-russia-says-open-to-opec-meeting.html

Oil rose on Wednesday, paring earlier losses after fresh comments from Russia about its openness to talk with OPEC over output cuts helped revive hope among investors that the world's largest producers could act to boost prices.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said if there is consensus among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC members to meet, "then we will meet."

This helped push the price of oil, which had been set for a third day of declines after data on Tuesday showed another big build in U.S. inventories, off the day's lows.

Brent for April delivery rose 40 cents to $33.12 a barrel by 0930 GMT, pulling away from a session low of $32.30. U.S. crude futures rose 46 cents to $30.34, off a session low of $29.40.

"Is there going to be a meeting between Russia and OPEC? That is a supportive factor in this rally that we've seen in the last one hour," PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said.

"(Oil-producing) countries are at the brink of default ... so the situation is dire."

Cash-strapped Nigeria and Angola are discussing potential financing from the World Bank, which, together with the International Monetary Fund, is in talks with Azerbaijan.

The 70 percent drop in the crude price over the last 18 months has hit the budgets of oil-dependent nations such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Russia and even some of the richer Gulf nations such as Bahrain.

Demand for oil, particularly in Asia, proved robust last year, but not enough to absorb near-record supply and ballooning inventories of unwanted crude.

U.S. crude stocks rose by 3.8 million barrels to 500.4 million in the week to Jan. 29, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed.

"The (global) inventory situation is going to get worse in the second quarter as we hit the peak refining rate at the end of this quarter," Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo, said.

A rebalancing between oil demand and supply will not come until mid-2017, Morgan Stanley said in a note.

"Despite the myriad announcements of capex cuts, production has yet to respond enough to rebalance the market," Morgan Stanley said.

Goldman Sachs in a note on Monday said volatility in the oil price, which is at its highest since the collapse of failed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008, could reach 100 percent as storage capacity comes under pressure. 

(Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE; Editing by Dale Hudson)

Inside Story - What's behind the falling price of oil?

Nigeria Ups Export Cargos for March

 

http://www.petroleumafrica.com/nigeria-ups-export-cargos-for-march/

With the lifting of the force majeure on Brass River crude by ENI and the reopening of Shell’s Trans Niger pipeline, Nigeria should see a bump in oil exports in March. According to export schedules, the West African country will up its exports by three cargos over the 59 export cargos scheduled for February.

The country could be exporting more but the tapping of pipelines by vandals keeps its production capacity down. Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, Works and Housing revealed that the damage to pipelines is costing the country $400,000 per day.

Anadarko Petroleum (APC) Stock Climbing on Rising Oil Prices

http://www.thestreet.com/story/13441398/1/anadarko-petroleum-apc-stock-climbing-on-rising-oil-prices.html

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC - Get Report) are up by 5.02% to $39.12 late Friday afternoon, as oil prices increase today.

Crude oil (WTI) is gaining by 1.44% to $33.70 per barrel this afternoon and Brent crude is higher by 2.48% to $34.73 per barrel, according to the CNBC.com index.

The price of the commodity is rising today on hopes that a deal between major exporters to reduce output could ease the global glut, Reuters reports.

This week, Russia said it could work with OPEC members on lowering production, which it has declined to do for 15 years.

"If OPEC proposes to Russia production limits that do not undermine Russia's long-term objectives, and key Russian producers back the deal, Russia may indeed agree to production limits," analysts from ESAI Energy said, according to Reuters.

Anadarko Petroleum is an independent exploration and production company headquartered in The Woodlands, TX.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings Team has a "sell" rating with a score of D on the stock.

This is driven by multiple weaknesses, which should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks covered by the team.

The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, poor profit margins, weak operating cash flow and generally high debt management risk.

Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: APC

ARA gasoil traders turn to floating storage

 

http://www.tankstoragemag.com/display_news/9429/ara_gasoil_traders_turn_to_floating_storage/

Clean product tankers are being used by traders as floating storage terminals just outside ARA ports as distillate capacity utilization remains high.

According to Genscape high storage levels at non-refinery storage facilities in the ARA have remained at 80 to 85% for distillates. This in turn has prompted some traders to use tankers moored just outside ARA ports or at offshore locations elsewhere in Europe, either close to some of the main load points or near key deviation points such as Gibraltar.

According to Colin Halling, senior analyst, EMEA oil at Genscape, some recent reports have suggested that as much as 640,000 metric tonnes of gasoil and ultra-low sulphur diesel are being stored in these oil tankers.

A gasoil vessel, the Captain Paris, left the export refinery of Ruwais in the Mideast Gulf on September 27, 2015. The ship has continued to float at anchorage just outside Rotterdam since arriving in the English Channel on December 9, 2015 with a laden draft.

This is one of several vessels being used for floating storage.

In January 2015, floating storage was back in favour globally with reports that rates for a 12-month ship charter had doubled, however, unlike the super-contango in 2009, only 20 million barrels was stored at sea.

Storage capacity constraints bring market volatility

http://www.tankstoragemag.com/display_news/9434/storage_capacity_constraints_bring_market_volatility/

Storage capacity constraints as a result of a significantly oversupplied crude market will bring more market volatility, according to Goldman Sachs.

In an interview with CNBC's 'Closing Bell', Jeffery Currie, global head of commodities research said that volatility will be a market trend for the future as will reaching storage capacity constraints.

He says: 'We think this is going to be a feature of the market: you just continue to slam against those capacity constraints in the coming months, creating a lot of volatility without any real trend.

'It just means more volatility, more grinding against those capacity constraints until finally you rebalance the market.'

He told the news broadcaster that at Cushing, Oklahoma, there is about three million barrels of spare capacity left, out of 89 to 90 million barrels.

He adds: 'The fact that we saw cash prices separate from forward prices tell us that we broke the cash-and-carry arb.'

Gulf Petrochem announces Fujairah expansion

http://www.tankstoragemag.com/display_news/9432/gulf_petrochem_announces_fujairah_expansion/

A $50 million expansion of Gulf Petrochem's Fujairah terminal, adding more than 240,000 m3 of capacity, has been announced.

The storage company's terminal currently has storage capacity of 412,000 m3 with 17 tanks ranging from 13,000 m3 up to 40,000 m3.

The expansion, which is due to be completed by March 2017, will add 243,280 m3, which will increase capacity to 655,280 m3 across tanks ranking from 9,000 m3 to 37,699 m3. This addition capacity will allow the company to store Class I products.

The EPC tender is expected to go to market at the beginning of February, with the project slated to start in April 2016.

Upon completion, the group will be able to offer its customers inter tank transfer, provision for blending and mixing as well as connection to the ports terminal infrastructure to allow for inter-terminal transfers.

The terminal will have two new jetty lines and both will be connected to the matrix manifold of the Port of Fujairah and cater to black and white oil.

Prerit Goel, group director and board member, says: As a group we are extremely pleased to be in a position to be able to continue with our projects amidst a climate of low oil prices and uncertainty in the market.

'In the current climate, we continue to be largely unaffected by the ongoing price volatility due to prudent risk management practices in place and our diverse presence across the oil supply chain. This expansion is testament to those practices and measures set in place, and further compliments our strategy to enhance our standing as a global conglomerate operating in the oil space.'