Oil prices experienced the worst start to the year in over three decades last week, falling by more than 9% over the first two days of trading. They have since recovered some of that loss, but are still set to be down significantly week-over-week, OilPrice said.

Oil prices are set for a 7% week-on-week decline as US recession fears and China’s troubled reopening amidst soaring coronavirus cases led market bulls to put their short-term optimism on the back burner. Lower gasoline and distillate stocks in the US, most probably a result of the recent bomb cyclone, have offset some of that downward pressure, but that has not been enough to move Brent back above $80 per barrel. 

OPEC production rises as Nigeria comes back.Rebounding Nigerian oil production lifted OPEC’s collective crude output in December, with the oil group adding 120,000 b/d compared to November figures and coming in at 29 million b/d, some 800,000 b/d below its production quota. U

AE leads Middle East in CO2 capture. ADNOC, the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, pledged to invest $15 billion in low-carbon energy by 2030, aiming to capture 5 million tonnes of CO2 by the end of the decade and build a 1 mtpa blue ammonia facility Ta’ziz. 

Carbon storage to help Canada’s oil sands.The Pathways Alliance, a group of six companies representing 95% of Canada’s oil sands production, has started work on a vast $12 billion underground carbon storage site that will store emissions from 14 projects in northern Alberta by 2030.

Dredging woes complicate Chevron’s Venezuela return.As US oil majorChevron seeks to ramp up operations in Venezuela as soon as possible, the shallow waters of the Maracaibo Lake allow only tankers with a draft of 10 meters as dredging has been completely neglected over the recent years. 

Pioneer downplays Permian prospects. Pioneer Natural Resources, one of the biggest US shale players, revised downwards its long-term projection for crude output from the Permian Basin by 1 million b/d, saying the Permian would be “only” producing 7 million b/d by 2030 amidst fading well productivity.

/OilPrice/