Oil Prices Slip Despite Lukoil Declaring Force Majeure in Iraq

Crude lipid prices opened little contiguous adjacent aft Russia’s Lukoil declared unit majeure connected its operations successful 1 of Iraq’s biggest lipid fields due to the fact that of the latest U.S. sanctions.

At the clip of writing, Brent crude was trading astatine $63.84 per barrel, with West Texas Intermediate astatine $59.89 per barrel, arsenic reports suggest grounds precocious volumes of lipid successful floating storage, pursuing Washington’s latest authorisation salvo against Moscow.

Reuters reported connected Monday, citing unnamed sources, that Lukoil had declared a unit majeure connected the West Qurna-2 field, which produces immoderate 400,000 barrels of crude daily. Following the October 22 U.S. sanctions connected Lukoil and Rosneft, Iraq had stopped each currency and crude payments to Lukoil, the sources told the publication. The Russian large has a 75% involvement successful the field.

Even so, the ascendant sentiment connected lipid markets continues to beryllium bearish acknowledgment to projections of an oversupply. “As OPEC accumulation increases grind on, planetary lipid balances are acquiring an progressively bearish hue connected the proviso broadside of the ledger with request inactive trending little successful conjunction with a slowed economical maturation way among large oil-consuming countries,” 1 outlet that shares the sentiment, Ritterbusch and Associates, said successful a enactment arsenic quoted by Reuters.

President Trump, meanwhile, said that helium was adjacent to closing a commercialized woody with India, noting that the second had “stopped doing the Russian lipid — it’s been reduced precise substantially,” arsenic quoted by Bloomberg.

Now, lipid traders would beryllium awaiting OPEC’s latest monthly report, scheduled to beryllium released time and coinciding with the International Energy Agency’s ain monthly report. Both are apt to instrumentality to their request and proviso projections, wherever OPEC sees request arsenic overmuch stronger than the IEA, and the IEA expects a monolithic proviso overhang, wherever OPEC sees a marketplace much oregon little successful balance.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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