Oil Prices Up More Than 9% for the Week

(Bloomberg) -- Crude prices slid after oil workers in Norway called off a strike that had shut down about 8% of the country’s production.
Futures in London and New York both fell over 1% on Friday. The settlement will restore production at six fields already shut down by the dispute and prevent an escalation to another six. It also averts the shutdown of Norway’s largest oil field, the 460,000 barrel-a-day Johan Sverdrup facility.
Still, Brent futures posted the largest weekly gain since early June and U.S. benchmark crude futures also advanced this week on supply disruptions from Hurricane Delta and optimism on a U.S. stimulus deal.
“If the strike lasted into next week or even beyond, that would mean a significant additional amount of platforms and fields that were impacted by the strike,” Gary Cunningham, a director at Tradition Energy. “Now that it’s resolved, not only are the incremental curtailments not going to happen, but now the original production is going to come back online.”
Futures were boosted this week amid President Donald Trump’s departure from the hospital following treatment for Covid-19 and mounting enthusiasm over a U.S. virus aid package, which would help spur a demand recovery. The coronavirus pandemic has been forcing governments worldwide to rethink reopening plans: Spain’s government has declared a state of emergency for the Madrid region and in the U.S., Texas virus hospitalizations jumped to a four-week high.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin headed into talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, carrying a White House offer of $1.8 trillion for economic stimulus, according to people familiar with the matter. The two spoke for about 30 minutes and Mnuchin’s proposal “attempted to address some of the concerns Democrats have,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said on Twitter.
“This is a very positive development,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC. “The petroleum complex needs a stimulus package as badly as any of the other asset classes, maybe even more so. To the extent that this gets the economy sort of stabilized, or maybe revived, that portends well for demand going forward.”
Prices
- West Texas Intermediate for November delivery fell 59 cents to settle at $40.60 a barrel. The contract rose 9.6% this week.
- Brent for December settlement lost 49 cents to end the session at $42.85 a barrel. The benchmark posted a 9.1% weekly gain.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Delta has weakened to a Category 2 storm with winds of 110 miles (177 kilometers) per hour. Energy companies have evacuated staff from offshore and onshore facilities. Currently, 1.7 million barrels a day of oil output in the Gulf of Mexico shut in.
Other oil-market news:
- The cost for oil producers to lock in the price at which they sell their crude has soared because of the collapse in the aviation industry.
- The slump in worldwide oil demand may not end until 2023, according to drillers in the U.S. heartland.
© 2020 Bloomberg L.P.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- Energy Services Sector Will Grow To $1 trillion In 2025
- Shell Posts Record 2022 Profit
- Maritime Security Report Shows Incident Trends Down YoY
- Will A New Iran Nuclear Deal Be Agreed to in 2023?
- New SPR Bill Passes House
- Big Oil Shareholders Biggest 2022 Winners With Massive Payouts
- Westwood: Several Macroeconomic Factors Make 2023 Unpredictable
- ADNOC Signs Deals With 23 Firms Worth $4.6 Billion
- Keppel O&M To Deliver Guyana's Third FPSO To SBM Offshore
- Winter Storm Mara Update
- What Bad Habits Should Oil and Gas Jobseekers Avoid?
- Top Headlines: Valaris Employee Reported Missing from Rig
- Big Oil Saw Record $199Bn Profits In 2022 But 2023 Will Be Different
- Governor Issues Disaster Declaration for Southeast Texas
- Biden To Support ConocoPhillips Alaska Oil Project, Defying Greens
- USA Drops 3 Gulf of Mexico Rigs
- Exxon Building Largest Renewable Diesel Plant In Canada
- USA Oil and Gas Employs Almost 1 Million in 2022
- World Still Waiting to See What China Reopening Means
- EU Considers Capping Russian Fuel Prices at $100
- Valaris Employee Reported Missing from Rig
- Louisiana, Texas To Gain Thousands of Energy Jobs At Start of 2023
- Gasoline and Diesel Prices Expected to Fall
- Is the USA Shale Boom Over?
- Higher Oil Prices Have Not Led to More Exploration
- Shell Finds Gas In Pensacola High-Impact Well Off UK
- Talos Makes Two Commercial Discoveries In Gulf Of Mexico
- Iran Oil Gushes Into Global Market
- Will Oil Hit $100 Per Barrel in 2023?
- Eni, Chevron Make Significant Gas Discovery Off Egypt