WTI $44.29 -91c, Brent $47.42 -56c, Diff $3.13 +35c, NG $2.37 +1c
Oil price
Last week oil prices fell again, WTI was down by $2.30 and Brent was off $2.14 only just keeping within trading ranges. With the NFP numbers being well higher than expected at 271/ , unemployment down to 5% and hourly earnings up 2.5% year on year, the greenback was only going one way, weakening the oil price.
The rig count, which showed an overall decline of 4 units and 6 in oil, was unlikely to impact such strength and at the weekend economic data from China also showed the different directions the biggest two economies in the world were headed. Crude oil imports in China in October were down 5.7% on September although this statistic is notoriously fickle and could easily reverse any time.
Other points to mention, in no particular order are as follows, the relentless supply of oil onto the market shows no sign of abating as confirmed, if any was needed, by the article on the front page of the FT about Saudi supplies. Interestingly the journalists on the story are tagged and include the paper’s Editor-in-Chief no less who is in Riyadh to help two other journos to write one small story… Elsewhere this week will see all three agencies produce their monthly reports and are unlikely to be anything but bearish although it was interesting to see speculative activity by hedgies and the like become more optimistic on Friday. Finally Barry vetoes the Keystone pipeline as expected on climate change grounds (not the 250bn miles a month that Americans drive then Baz?) as well as ruling out oil exports while he was about it.
Exxon
Exxon managed to get into the world news part of the weekend papers as it revealed it had been subpoenaed by New York prosecutors in a test case over alleged climate crimes. The case centres around whether the company withheld information from investors on the financial risks of climate change and ‘conspired to manipulate the public debate’. At its worst some commentators are comparing the climate change issue to what the cigarette industry went through and even if it is not quite that bad I suspect its not the last we have heard of this kind of thing.
Hurricane Energy
Hurricane has announced that its licence P1368 offshore the West of Shetlands has been subdivided into four areas which will…
