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Oil Updates — Oil settled up; G7 considering ways of capping Russian oil price; US drillers add oil and gas rigs for a record 23 months

RIYADH: Oil prices set­tled up by more than $3 a bar­rel on Fri­day, sup­port­ed by tight sup­ply, but they notched their sec­ond week­ly decline on con­cern that ris­ing inter­est rates could push the world econ­o­my into recession.

Brent crude set­tled up $3.07, or 2.8 per­cent, at $113.12 a bar­rel by 12:10 p.m. EDT. US West Texas Inter­me­di­ate crude set­tled up $3.35, or 3.2 per­cent, at $107.62.

No gov­ern­ment guid­ance on pric­ing pol­i­cy: Incom­ing Petro­bras CEO 

The incom­ing CEO of Brazil’s state-run oil com­pa­ny Petro­bras told a cor­po­rate com­mit­tee he has not received any guid­ance from the gov­ern­ment on chang­ing the firm’s fuel pric­ing pol­i­cy, a doc­u­ment showed on Saturday.

Caio Mario Paes de Andrade, a for­mer econ­o­my min­istry offi­cial appoint­ed by Pres­i­dent Jair Bol­sonaro to run Petro­bras, was approved by the eli­gi­bil­i­ty com­mit­tee on Fri­day, a key step for him to take the reins of the company.

The min­utes of the meet­ing, pub­lished by Petro­bras on Sat­ur­day, showed the com­mit­tee had asked Andrade about the company’s pric­ing pol­i­cy, a top­ic that helped bring down three CEOs dur­ing Bolsonaro’s tenure as price hikes cre­at­ed ten­sions with the far-right leader.

“I have no spe­cif­ic or gen­er­al guid­ance from the con­trol­ling share­hold­er or any oth­er share­hold­er in the sense of chang­ing the company’s pric­ing pol­i­cy,” Andrade said.

He is on the verge of tak­ing over as CEO a month after he was named by Bol­sonaro, await­ing a board vote on June 27.

G7 con­sid­er­ing ways of cap­ping Russ­ian oil price

Lead­ers of the Group of Sev­en rich democ­ra­cies are hav­ing “very con­struc­tive” dis­cus­sions on a pos­si­ble cap on Russ­ian oil imports, a Ger­man gov­ern­ment offi­cial said on Sat­ur­day short­ly before the start of the annu­al three-day G7 summit.

The pro­pos­al is part of broad­er G7 dis­cus­sions on how to fur­ther crank up the pres­sure on the Krem­lin over its inva­sion of Ukraine with­out stok­ing glob­al infla­tion­ary pressures.

The Ukraine war, ener­gy and food short­ages and the dark­en­ing glob­al eco­nom­ic out­look are expect­ed to dom­i­nate the agen­da of the sum­mit that is tak­ing place this year in Schloss Elmau, an alpine cas­tle resort in south­ern Germany.

The US, Cana­da and Britain have already banned imports of Russ­ian oil while EU lead­ers have agreed on an embar­go that will take full effect by the end-2022 as part of sanc­tions on the Krem­lin over its inva­sion of Ukraine.

With ener­gy prices soar­ing though, the West fears such embar­goes will not actu­al­ly put a dent in Russia’s war chest as the coun­try earns more from exports even as vol­umes fall.

A price cap could solve that dilem­ma, while also avoid­ing fur­ther restrict­ing oil sup­ply and fuel­ing infla­tion, offi­cials say, but for it to work, it requires buy-in from heavy importers like India and China.

“We are on a good path to reach an agree­ment,” the offi­cial said.

The offi­cial said the G7 was also dis­cussing the need to com­bine ambi­tious cli­mate goals with the need for some coun­tries to explore new gas fields as Europe rushed to wean itself off Russ­ian gas imports.

US drillers add oil and gas rigs for a record 23 months

US ener­gy firms this week added oil and nat­ur­al gas rigs for a sec­ond week in a row, in a record 23-month streak of increas­es, as high crude prices and prod­ding by the gov­ern­ment prompt­ed drillers to return to the well pad.

The oil and gas rig count, an ear­ly indi­ca­tor of future out­put, rose 13 to 753 in the week to June 24, its high­est since March 2020, ener­gy ser­vices firm Bak­er Hugh­es Co. said in its close­ly fol­lowed report on Friday.

Bak­er Hugh­es said that puts the total rig count up 283, or 60 per­cent, over this time last year.

US oil rigs rose 10 to 594 this week, their high­est since March 2020, while gas rigs gained three to 157, their high­est since Sep­tem­ber 2019.

That put the over­all oil and gas rig count up for a record 23 months in a row, gain­ing 26 in June. It also put the count up for sev­en quar­ters in a row, the longest streak of gains since 2011.

The oil rig count was up for a record 22 months in a row, ris­ing 20 in June. It also increased for the sev­enth quar­ter, the most quar­ters since 2012.

The gas rig count rose by six in June, ris­ing for a 10th month in a row, tying the record set in May 2010. It also put the gas count up for sev­en quar­ters in a row, match­ing the record set in 2004.

(With inputs from Reuters) 

 

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