Oil prices slipped on Friday, heading for a weekly loss of more than 2%, weighed down by oversupply concerns and ongoing uncertainty surrounding U.S.-China tariff negotiations.
The oil markets have seemingly tired of trying to anticipate the next move of US President Donald Trump, with ICE Brent settling within a relatively narrow bandwidth of $66.0-67.5 per barrel this week. Such rangebound trading still represents a fall from a week ago, with hopes of potential US-China trade talks quashed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry denying that any bilateral negotiations were taking place.
Trump Signs Deep Sea Mining Order. Bypassing a recently launched United Nations-brokered pilot called the International Seabed Authority, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that fast-tracks permitting procedures for deep-sea mining in international waters.
Saudi Arabia Gets Serious About India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Saudi Arabia with an official visit and accompanied by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed a framework agreement to jointly establish two new refineries in India, presumably involving Saudi Aramco.
US Targets Southeast Asia’s Solar Exports. The US Department of Commerce has proposed duties on photovoltaic solar cells produced in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, ranging from 40% on Jinko Solar exports from Malaysia to a whopping 3500% for certain Chinese producers in Cambodia.
EU Wants to Legally Ban Russian Deals. The European Commission is investigating whether it would be possible to legislate a continent-wide ban to sign new contracts for Russian fossil fuels, primarily geared to block EU buyers from spot purchases of Russian LNG, still 15% of the continent’s gas needs.
Kazakhstan Shows Its Feisty Side. Currently wielding the worst compliance readings within OPEC+, Kazakh government officials struck back against criticism by stating that Kazakhstan will prioritize national interests over those of OPEC+ as it currently produces some 350,000 b/d above its quota.
Related: Trump Officials Push IEA to Drop Energy Transition Agenda
Japan Moves to Subsidize Fuel Even More. Japan has announced a revamp of its fuel subsidy policy, providing fixed subsidies from May 22 onwards that seek to lower gasoline and diesel prices by ¥10 per litre ($0.26 per gallon), whilst prices of jet fuel and fuel oil would be cut by half that amount.
China Rejects Indonesia’s New Coal Pricing. Chinese buyers of Indonesian coal continue to boycott Indonesia’s recently launched government-set price for thermal coal, stating that the new HBA pricing benchmark is more costly without any quality improvements and gets updated less frequently.
Tight Asian Stocks Push Copper Higher. Copper producers across China are scrambling to lay their hands on available scrap metal, raising the probability of a short squeeze on copper as buying tilts towards refined copper with total SHFE stocks falling 36% over the past month, seasonally a weak period.
US Senate Mulls Reversal of California Car Sales Mandate. The US House of Representatives is set to vote next week on a measure to derail California’s mandate that all car sales by 2035 be electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen, concurrently voting on easing the limits for nitrogen oxide emissions from trucks.
Venezuela Pins Its Hopes on China. Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodriguez visited China this week as Caracas seeks to garner the interest of Chinese refiners for prospective crude supplies, with March already showing a month-over-month doubling of China-bound flows ahead of a US sanctions snapback.
Mexico’s Valero Ban Didn’t Last Long. It took less than a month for Mexico’s tax authorities to reinstate the fuel import license of US refiner Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO), its largest gasoline supplier, as a nationwide crackdown on fuel smuggling also led to Pemex buying 9 spot gasoline cargoes in Asia.
US Oil Still Sees a Future in Namibia. Undeterred by the failure of its first exploration well in Namibia (Kapana-1), US oil major Chevron (NYSE:CVX) stated that it is looking to drill a second exploration well in the Walvis Basin in 2026 or 2027, trying its luck closer to the Namibian shore.
India Opens Up Nuclear Investment. The Indian government is set to ease investment requirements into its booming nuclear sector, allowing foreign companies to take stakes of up to 49% in its nuclear plants as New Delhi seeks to expand its capacity 12-fold to 100 GW by 2047.
Iran Seeks Russian Energy Investments. Visiting Moscow this week, Iran’s oil minister Mohsen Paknejad announced that Russian oil companies will invest $4 billion to develop seven Iranian oil fields, concurrently signing a memorandum on the construction of a new nuclear power plant in the country.
By Tom Kool for Oilprice.com
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