The end of the Assad family’s 53-year rule in Syria has had only minor ramifications on the oil markets, with production in government-controlled regions averaging only 15,000 barrels per day with most of the country’s output taking place in Kurdish lands.
The collapse of the Syrian government prompted the oil markets to look at Middle Eastern geopolitical risks again, but the relatively small volumes directly at risk in Syria means the impact on prices has been limited. ICE Brent continues to linger below $72 per barrel while WTI is trading below $68.59. Low trading liquidity and a lack of tradable fundamental events would most probably steer the markets’ attention to monetary policy, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting next week.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman defended the ‘flexibility’ of OPEC+ in deferring the unwinding of production cuts, adding that the group understood Q1 2025 would not be a good quarter to bring back volumes.
The OPEC+ group faced a “reality check” in discussions about its production policy and had the double task of attending to fundamentals and at the same time putting together something to assuage the negative market sentiment, Saudi Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, told CNBC in an exclusive interview on Friday.
The OPEC+ alliance decided on Thursday to delay the start of the easing of the 2.2 million bpd cuts to April 2025. OPEC+ has already postponed twice the beginning of the output increase. January 2025 was set as the point from which producers would begin to add supply—that was before Thursday’s meeting.
Now the start is April 2025, while the group also extended the period in which it would unwind all these cuts until September 2026. The deferral, while primarily motivated by fundamentals, would give OPEC+ a better view on China’s growth, Europe’s growth, U.S. policy, interest rates, and inflation in key developed markets, the Saudi energy minister said.
US diesel production hits 5-Year high.Production of ultra-low sulfur diesel soared to 5.153 million bpd in the last weekly data published by the US Energy Information Administration, marking the highest weekly output since January 2019 as diesel cracks remained robust around 15-16 per barrel.
Airlines hope for a better 2025. The International Air Transport Association expected the global aviation industry to generate $36.6 billion next year, up from $31.5 billion in 2024, with newer aircraft offering 10-15% efficiency gains on consumption and lower jet fuel prices easing margin pressures.
Bad weather delays key field launch. Norway’s national oil company Equinor decided to postpone the start-up of its 220,000 bpd Johan Castberg oil field to January-February 2025 from the end of this year due to adverse weather conditions in the Barents Sea.
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