The Oil Price Collapse Continues After Brief Respite.

The oil price crash appeared to have been halted on Thursday after the Swiss central bank stepped in to save Credit Suisse and the energy ministers of Russia and Saudi Arabia met to signal a willingness to intervene if the collapse continued. On Friday, however, prices headed lower once again, OilPrices said.

In one of the most tumultuous weeks in recent years for oil markets, oil prices are on course to post a more than 10% loss. The oil price collapse took a breather on Thursday as the Swiss national bank stepped in to save Credit Suisse while Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled a willingness to intervene. Bearish sentiment is difficult to shake off, however, and prices continued lower on Friday. 

The Biden administration has revised two exchange contracts it signed with Shell covering 3.6 million barrels of US SPR crude, delaying their return until 2025, despite assurances from the US Department of Energy that it would expedite the repurchases.

The last large-scale refining project to be commissioned in the US, the 250,000 b/d capacity Blade project at ExxonMobil’srefinery in Beaumont, TX, is set to start up in the upcoming weeks, running on Permian crude and increasing naphtha and gasoline supply in the US Gulf Coast.

/OilPrices/