Energy and commodities columnist at Bloomberg. Co-author of the 'The World for Sale' http://amzn.to/3t6dVJV Any views expressed are my own. jblas3@bloomberg.net
Although flat Brent futures haven't responded very strongly yet, time-spreads are quickly widening, with backwardation reaching unusual levels. The Brent 1-year time-spread has surged to almost $20 a barrel backwardation. Excluding the March spike, that would be a record | 3/4
Further on Glencore. *So far*, not a single senior executive faces jail time. Other than Enron’s executives, the US last jailed a top oil trader in 2007-08 when it sent to prison David Chalmers and Oscar Wyatt, the CEOs of Bayoil and Coastal after the Iraq's Oil-for-Food scandal
According to the IEA, global refinery throughput will rise more than 4m b/d from spring to summer, surging from a low point of 78m b/d in April to an average of 82m b/d between July and September. Global refining throughput will, however, remain below pre-covid levels | 4/4
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NO BUYERS: Russian flagship Urals crude plunges to a fresh record large discount of **minus $22.7-a-barrel** to benchmark Dated Brent. Even at such a huge discount, oil trader Trafigura found no bidders | #OOTT #Ukraine
BREAKING: And wow!!! After BP, the deluge. Shell announces it's exiting all its joint-ventures with Gazprom, including its 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-2 LNG facility. Shell carries those JV at $3 billion valuation on its books, and it's warning of impartments #Ukraine
EUROPEAN ENERGY CRISIS: Wow, wow, wow... I'm running out of words to describe the European short-term electricity market. Multiple records breached for Monday. With the exception of Poland and Scandinavia, all Europe is above €300 per MWh (France and Switzerland near €400)
BREAKING: Exxon withdraws from Russia. “We are beginning the process to discontinue operations and developing steps to exit the Sakhalin-1 venture,” it says (unclear what “discontinue” means, but Exxon operates the LNG facility, so it’s a big deal)
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