Investment bank Morgan Stanley has again cut its forecast price for a barrel of oil, expecting the international benchmark to average US$ 75 a barrel in the last quarter of the year. This is because analysts at Morgan Stanley see rising headwinds on the demand side, which has been their key reason for cutting their Q4 oil price forecast.
Oil-producing countries grouped under OPEC+ Sunday announced a voluntary cut in crude output of around 1.15 million barrels per day (bpd) in addition to a 2-million reduction agreed upon in October to boost prices, it was reported. The measure will come into effect in May and last until the end of this year.
Oil prices continued their slide on Wednesday after another banking fallout unsteadied the market further. WTI plunged 4.21% on Wednesday, falling below US$ 70 for the first time since December 2021 to US$ 68.33 per barrel ET. Brent Crude fell over 3.94% to US$ 74.40, for a loss of US$ 3.05 per barrel.
Guyana has sold a cargo of one million barrels of its newest crude to ExxonMobil for US$106 per barrel, which was the first share for the government from the newly operational Liza Unity production platform operated by Exxon, according to Tsvetana Paraskova from Oilprice.com.
Argentina's state-run oil company YPF has increased its prices at pumps between 9.5% and 11.5%. It was the second rise this year. Other brands such as Shell have followed suit. The last increase had been in February.
Brazil's Petrobras has increased the price of refined gasoline and diesel for distributors as of March 11. The average price has gone up to R$3.86 (US$ 0.77) for regular fuel and R$4.51 (US$ 0.9) for diesel.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com – WTI Crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, jumped to over US$ 92 per barrel early on Friday—its highest level since 2014, amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis and a deep freeze in Texas that disrupted some Permian oil production.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com – In the shortest meeting so far in its history, OPEC+ decided on Wednesday to increase the collective production by 400,000 barrels per day (BPD) in March, keeping unchanged the plan to boost output and pushing Brent above US$ 90 per barrel again with the per-usual modest production hike.
The price of crude could rise to US$ 100 per barrel in coming weeks, anticipated Russian president Vladimir Putin during the Energy Week conference held in Moscow.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com - The Unite States Department of Energy is walking back previous comments that it was considering a release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and a ban on crude oil exports, Bloomberg’s Javier Blas reported on Twitter.