WTI $41.19 +$1.24, Brent $43.34 +$1.35, Diff -$2.15 +11c, NG $2.63 +2c

Oil price

Even with a small fall this morning it will have been a decent up week for the oil price. However it must be said that without intransigent workers and bad weather it would not be so bad. In Norway the strike is on a knife edge, mediation talks start today, if not successful it will undoubtedly spread.

As for the weather, hurricane Delta has increased in strength to Category 3 and whipped across the GoM yesterday and is expected to make landfall in Lafayette, Louisiana later this evening, a curfew has been set for noon. In the process some 92% of production has been shut-in, some 279 offshore facilities, 14 rigs have moved and 1.69m b/d of oil and 1.67 bcf/d of gas are off-line. This is the 25th named storm this year, the most since 1851…

If the long suffering oil workers think that another storm is going to be bad for them they should look forward to storm Biden as the candidate would cut a deal with Iran and Venezuela thus lowering prices and making US crude uncompetitive at a stroke and of course ban fraccing, new state leases and pipeline construction…

Finally, the Opec report has confirmed that they expect global oil demand will surpass pre-COVID levels in 2022.

Star Phoenix Group

STA has announced that its oilfield services business has completed a cost reduction programme which involved restructuring RRDSL along with other measures. This year they have targeted an 85% reduction in annual operating cost y/y.

The company are dry leasing some equipment and has agreed to sell some smaller production rigs for c,$0.2m. It is still evaluating opportunities to sell the remaining 8 rigs of which 4 are modern rigs.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Malcy's Blog