Daily Energy Report
Crude Oil Futures for May 2020 settled down $2.45 @ $23.63/bbl trading in a $3.70 range including the overnight-RBOB settled down 5.34/cpg and Heating Oil settled down 1.82/cpg.
President Trump gave the strongest signal yet the U.S. might not join Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major producers in coord inated oil-production cuts. While OPEC and its allies prepare for a meeting on Thursday to forge an unprecedented output-cut deal, Trump told reporters in Washington that the free market would work to curb American production. “I think the cuts are automatic if you are a believer in markets,” he said, echoing comments made last week after a meeting with several oil industry reps ended without a public plan for addressing the oil market’s historic crash. Though the president has touted global output cuts of 10 million to 15 million barrels a day to stabilize prices, he’s been discreet to commit the U.S. to such an effort, suggesting instead that Saudi Arabia and Russia should bear the brunt.
Natural Gas Futures for May 2020 settled up $0.121 @ $1.852/mmbtu trading in a .137 cent range including the overnight session.
Qatar Petroleum will postpone the start of production from its new gas facilities to 2025 due to a delay in the bidding process, but is not downsizing the worlds largest liquefied natural gas project, its chief exec utive told reporters. Saad alKaabi said the company is not scaling back their plan to build six new LNG production facilities needed for an ambitious dome stic scale-up. Kaabi said the company had been expecting to receive final bids from contractors for the first phase the North Field East project. However, that was delayed as firms asked for more time to submit bids due to the global lockdow n linked to Coronavirus.
