Being asleep at the wheel is invariably a hyperbolic cliché. But in the case of the London Metal Exchange and its regulators, it’s no metaphor; it’s a literal description of last year’s crisis in the nickel market.
When Saudi Arabia needs to quickly convince the oil market that supply is tightening, putting upward pressure on prices, nothing beats reducing its crude exports into the US.
In August 2020, Exxon Mobil Inc., the largest American oil company, was expelled from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the world’s most famous stock index. It was described at the time as green triumphing over greed.
When the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, triggering the largest-ever oil spill in the US, all eyes turned to BP Plc, the British company behind the drilling. But BP wasn’t alone in the project.
If putting his country first was impolite, Prince Abdulaziz — son of King Salman, half-brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — warned he would have no choice but to be rude. “I’m pro-Saudi,” he said.
The recipe for making money if you’re a commodities trader is simple: buy natural resources in one place and time and sell them somewhere else later — hopefully making a buck by exploiting the difference.
The US has become the world's oil barrel of last resort, single handedly keeping prices in the energy market from exploding even higher by selling a large chunk of its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Europeans enduring an unseasonal April cold snap may be forgiven for thinking winter is back. But for the natural gas market, summer has arrived. April 1 marked the start of a new year in the energy calendar, moving the focus to injecting enough gas into storage during the coming low-demand months in preparation for next winter. It’s a race Europe cannot afford to lose, but one it will struggle to win following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The OPEC+ alliance warned of a “precarious” outlook as a resurgent coronavirus pandemic hurts oil demand, dropping further hints about a potential change of policy next month.
Futures are now at the lowest level in almost two decades after Saudi Arabia signaled it’s doubling down on a price war with Russia just as demand evaporates
