Tag: OPEC

Saudi Arabia offered more crude to Asian refiners in July Rates for crude oil tankers on key Asian freight routes are seen mixed with the Middle East benchmark route supported by rising exports from Saudi Arabia, while intra-Asia trade stays under pressure due to an oversupply of tonnage.For clean tankers, rates are expected to stay at weak levels due to limited oil products demand in Asia and the arrival of more vessels to the market, shipbrokers said on Tuesday.Rates for long-haul crude shipments were expected to find support from rising exports from Saudi Arabia. The world's top oil exporter offered more crude to Asian refiners in July, evidence that it is taking steps to unilaterally increase supplies after OPEC talks collapsed last week.Rates on the benchmark Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) export route from the Middle East to Japan rose to W58.53 on Monday from W55.07 last week. The market hit a two-month high of W58.60 on Friday."Saudi is providing some much needed good news to an otherwise weak market," said a Singapore-based shipbroker."But the added supplies will still not be enough to cover all the new arrivals, so we will only see a small rise in rates for a ...

Demand could suffer if price oil is above $100 a barrel Asian refineries are confident Saudi Arabia will ensure no shortage of oil supply to meet rapidly rising demand this year despite OPEC's failure to agree an output increase this week.But demand in the region could suffer in the long term if the failure of the producer group to send a clear signal to markets keeps oil above $100 a barrel.Asia, led by China, is driving the global increase in oil consumption, so higher Saudi supply would benefit regional refiners. The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) expects Asia to burn 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) more oil in 2011 than 2010, over 70 percent of the 1.29 million bpd global demand growth forecast for the year."We are not concerned about a shortage of supplies," said a Chinese crude trader at a big state-run oil refiner. "Our demand has been met over the past two years even when OPEC cut supplies and changed crude grades they supplied."Saudi is China's top supplier, and in the first four months of 2011 is already up over 27 percent on the year at 1 million bpd. OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers are competing hard for ...

Oil prices are hurting the economy With oil prices high, the International Energy Agency (IEA) last month made a rare plea for the world to produce more oil.So the latest meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), where they set their production quotas, was closely watched. After a rancorous meeting, most member countries refused to raise quotas.Before the OPEC meeting, the chief economist of the IEA, Fatih Birol, told the New York Times: "Oil prices are hurting the economy." He added, "I hope to see more oil in the markets soon."Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi declared it "one of the worst meetings we ever had," with opposing views from the "haves" and "have-nots" -- in terms of spare production capacity.Saudi Arabia had been pushing to boost production by more than 1.5 million barrels per day, above current levels. Already OPEC members have gone beyond their quotas, producing an estimated 28.8 million barrels per day, compared to the current overall quota of 24.8 million barrels per day. "Everybody in OPEC is cheating and everyone knows that," an oil analyst told the New York Times.The Saudi oil minister suggested his country would decide on its own production levels, telling ...