Oil Price

A Chinese tanker is attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported today, citing ship-tracking data showing the VLCC moving south along the eastern side of the chokepoint. The moment is delicate for relations between the United States, China, and Iran as President Trump heads to Beijing for talks with President Xi on topics that are bound to include traffic via the...

A recent Bank of Canada Market Participants Survey has flagged geopolitical and trade tensions as the biggest risks facing the Canadian economy. Leading the downside are geopolitical risks led by the Middle East war, with 82% of respondents identifying it as the biggest risk, while 79% and 57% of respondents picked growing trade tensions and tightening global financial condition...

The price of physical crude has collapsed in recent weeks from premiums of over $30 per barrel above the Brent benchmark in early April, to near-parity or even at small discounts in the May buying cycle window. That’s not because the worst-ever disruption in oil markets has eased and supply has suddenly become plentiful from sources other than the Middle East. It’s because refin...

When U.S. and Israeli forces launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran at the end of February, the energy market’s first question was how long the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed. Ten weeks later, that question is still open.  Brent is hovering near $107, Trump called Iran’s latest counterproposal “totally unacceptable” on Monday, and Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser has been warni...

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 2.188 million barrels in the week ending May 8. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 8.1 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 1.65 million-barrel draw for the current reporting period. US crude inventories are up 35 million barrels so far this year, accordi...