President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered his administration to come up with a plan to aid US oil companies struggling with a massive supply glut and record low crude prices. “We will never let the great U.S. Oil & Gas Industry down,” Trump tweeted.
The price of US oil has turned negative for the first time in history. That means oil producers are paying buyers to take the commodity off their hands over fears that storage capacity could run out in May.
US crude fell about 20% to below US$15 a barrel on Monday, its lowest level in about two decades, as a coronavirus-triggered collapse in demand eclipsed a deal to cut output. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, fell 18.7% to US$14.84 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was off 1.5% at US$27.64 a barrel.
Exxon Mobil Corp on Monday raised US$ 9.5 billion in new debt, with the largest U.S. oil producer seeking to bolster its finances while debt markets remain open to new deals.
Oil prices jumped on Monday after swinging wildly in early trading as investors weighed whether a historic deal by the world’s biggest producers to cut output would be enough to steady a market pummeled by the coronavirus.
While Mexico and Saudi Arabia fought over a deal to bring the oil-price war to an end, Mexico has a powerful defense: a massive Wall Street hedge shielding it from low prices. The Mexican sovereign oil hedge, which ensures the country against low prices and is considered a state secret, is a factor that may make the country less inclined to accept the OPEC+ agreement.
Argentina’s state-held energy firm YPF slashed by 50% the oil production from its key development area in the vast Vaca Muerta shale play this week due to tumbling fuel demand in Argentina’s lockdown, local news outlet Rio Negro reports.
OPEC, Russia and other allies outlined plans on Thursday to cut their oil output by more than a fifth and said they expected the United States and other producers to join in their effort to prop up prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis.
Rockhopper Exploration is responding to market developments by reducing staffing levels and activity related to the Sea Lion development in the offshore North Falkland basin. The company plans to maintain a smaller team, mainly focused on regulatory, fiscal and financial issues, pending a recovery in the external macro-environment.
Crude oil benchmarks opened the month mixed on Wednesday, following their biggest-ever quarterly and monthly losses, overshadowed by fears of global oversupply as data showed a bigger-than-expected rise in inventories in the United States.