Economy

Brent Soars to $91 on Supply Shortage, Geopolitical Tensions

Published

3 years ago

01/02/2022

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Brent crude was traded at $91.21 per barrel on Monday after it gained $1.18 or 1.31 per cent as a supply shortage and political tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East put prices on track for their biggest monthly gain in almost a year.

During the session, the United States West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures appreciated by $1.32 or 1.52 per cent to sell for $88.14 per barrel.

It was the last trading session for January 2022 and on a monthly basis, the oil market improved by 17 per cent, the strongest January performance in at least 30 years.

This is happening as concerns about supply outages in connection with the Ukraine crisis keep pushing prices even further up.

The head of NATO, Mr Jens Stoltenberg, said on Sunday that Europe needed to diversify its energy supplies as Britain warned it was “highly likely” that Russia was looking to invade Ukraine.

“We are concerned about the energy situation in Europe because it demonstrates the vulnerability of being too dependent on one supplier of natural gas and that’s the reason why NATO allies agree that we need to work and focus on diversification of supplies,” he said.

Tensions have risen as Russia has amassed some 120,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border and demanded the Western defence alliance pull back troops and weapons from Eastern Europe and bar Ukraine, a former Soviet state, from ever joining NATO.

The other geopolitical risk is in the Middle East, where the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported a third attack in January, following the deadly attack with drones from the Iran-aligned Houthis two weeks ago and intercepted missiles last week.

On Monday, the UAE again said it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi group, with the UAE Defense Ministry saying there were no casualties.

The ministry affirmed its full readiness to deal with any threats, adding that it will take all necessary measures to protect the UAE from any attacks.

The likely supply disruptions is coming when a former member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Ecuador, suspended pumping crude in its privately held heavy crude pipelines on Saturday as a preventative measure after it ruptured in the Amazon and began cleaning and repairs.

Ecuador left the then 14-member cartel on January 1, 2020, due to fiscal problems.

Meanwhile, OPEC and its allies, OPEC+ are meeting on Wednesday, February 2 to decide production levels for March, while the market is looking at how much of the increase the alliance can actually deliver.

The alliance has raised their output target each month since August by 400,000 barrels per day and all indications show it is likely to stick with a planned rise in its oil output target for March.

However, analysts note that instead of the expected 400,000 barrels per day increase, the market is more interested in finding out how much the group can deliver after more than half of its members struggled in recent months.

It was noted that this decision will continue to support a continued rally.

There are signs that OPEC’s oil output in January was again under levels expected from the output deal with allies, showing that some producers will continue to struggle to pump more even as prices trade at a seven-year high.

Economy

Again, OPEC Cuts 2024, 2025 Oil Demand Forecasts

Published

6 hours ago

11/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has once again trimmed its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth forecasts.

The bloc made this in its latest monthly oil market report for December 2024.

The 2024 world oil demand growth forecast is now put at 1.61 million barrels per day from the previous 1.82 million barrels per day.

For 2025, OPEC says the world oil demand growth forecast is now at 1.45 million barrels per day, which is 900,000 barrels per day lower than the 1.54 million barrels per day earlier quoted.

On the changes, the group said that the downgrade for this year owes to more bearish data received in the third quarter of 2024 while the projections for next year relate to the potential impact that will arise from US tariffs.

The oil cartel had kept the 2024 outlook unchanged until August, a view it had first taken in July 2023.

OPEC and its wider group of allies known as OPEC+ earlier this month delayed its plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.

Eight OPEC+ member countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman – decided to extend additional crude oil production cuts adopted in April 2023 and November 2023, due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.

In April 2023, these OPEC+ countries decided to reduce their oil production by over 1.65 million barrels per day as of May 2023 until the end of 2023. These production cuts were later extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended until the end of December 2026.

In addition, in November 2023, these producers had agreed to voluntary output cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day for the first quarter of 2024, in order to support prices and stabilise the market.

These additional production cuts were extended to the end of 2024 and will now be extended to the end of March 2025; they will then be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026.

Members have made a series of deep output cuts since late 2022.

They are currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day, or about 5.7 per cent of global demand. Russia also announced plans to reduce its production by an extra 471,000 barrels per day in June 2024.

Economy

Aradel Holdings Acquires Equity Stake in Chappal Energies

Published

11 hours ago

11/12/2024

Aduragbemi Omiyale

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

A minority equity stake in Chappal Energies Mauritius Limited has been acquired by a Nigerian energy firm, Aradel Holdings Plc.

This deal came a few days after Chappal Energies purchased a 53.85 per cent equity stake in Equinor Nigeria Energy Company Limited (ENEC).

Chappal Energies went into the deal with Equinor to take part in the oil and gas lease OML 128, including the unitised 20.21 per cent stake in the Agbami oil field, operated by Chevron.

Since production started in 2008, the Agbami field has produced more than one billion barrels of oil, creating value for Nigerian society and various stakeholders.

As part of the deal, Chappal will assume the operatorship of OML 129, which includes several significant prospects and undeveloped discoveries (Nnwa, Bilah and Sehki).

The Nnwa discovery is part of the giant Nnwa-Doro field, a major gas resource with significant potential to deliver value for Nigeria.

In a separate transaction, on July 17, 2024, Chappal and Total Energies sealed an SPA for the acquisition by Chappal of 10 per cent of the SPDC JV.

The relevant parties to this transaction are working towards closing out this transaction and Ministerial Approval and NNPC consent to accede to the Joint Operating Agreement have been obtained.

“This acquisition is in line with diversifying our asset base, deepening our gas competencies and gaining access to offshore basins using low-risk approaches.

“We recognise the strategic role of gas in Nigeria’s energy future and are happy to expand our equity holding in this critical resource.

“We are committed to the cause of developing the significant value inherent in the assets, which will be extremely beneficial to the country.

“Aradel hopes to bring its proven execution competencies to bear in supporting Chappal’s development of these opportunities,” the chief executive of Aradel Holdings, Mr Adegbite Falade, stated.

Economy

Afriland Properties Lifts NASD OTC Securities Exchange by 0.04%

Published

14 hours ago

11/12/2024

Adedapo Adesanya

By Adedapo Adesanya

Afriland Properties Plc helped the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange record a 0.04 per cent gain on Tuesday, December 10 as the share price of the property investment rose by 34 Kobo to N16.94 per unit from the preceding day’s N16.60 per unit.

As a result of this, the market capitalisation of the bourse went up by N380 million to remain relatively unchanged at N1.056 trillion like the previous trading day.

But the NASD Unlisted Security Index (NSI) closed higher at 3,014.36 points after it recorded an addition of 1.09 points to Monday’s closing value of 3,013.27 points.

The NASD OTC securities exchange recorded a price loser and it was Geo-Fluids Plc, which went down by 2 Kobo to close at N3.93 per share, in contrast to the preceding day’s N3.95 per share.

During the trading session, the volume of securities bought and sold by investors increased by 95.8 per cent to 2.4 million units from the 1.2 million securities traded in the preceding session.

However, the value of shares traded yesterday slumped by 3.7 per cent to N4.9 million from the N5.07 million recorded a day earlier, as the number of deals surged by 27.3 per cent to 14 deals from 11 deals.

Geo-Fluids Plc remained the most active stock by volume (year-to-date) with 1.7 billion units sold for N3.9 billion, trailed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units worth N5.3 million.

Also, Aradel Holdings Plc remained the most active stock by value (year-to-date) with 108.7 million units worth N89.2 billion, followed by Okitipupa Plc with 752.2 million units valued at N7.8 billion, and Afriland Properties Plc with 297.5 million units sold for N5.3 billion.