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Irina Slav

Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

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Oil Rally Stumbles On OPEC+ Uncertainty

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A rally that pushed oil prices higher than they were immediately before the pandemic struck has faltered on uncertainty around OPEC+ and a stronger dollar.

Hedge fund oil buying reflected the changing fortunes of oil, turning from net buyers to net sellers in the six most popular oil and fuel contracts, Reuters' John Kemp reported in his latest weekly column. That put an end to 15 straight weeks of buying, Kemp noted.

Besides the obvious factors that affect oil prices, such as the upcoming OPEC+ meeting that could result in an agreement to boost production, which would dampen prices, there was one new factor: the potential for worsening U.S.-Saudi relations.

The Biden administration last week released a report that implicated the Saudi government in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which would be enough to sour bilateral relations, especially after the federal administration announced sanctions on a former senior Saudi intelligence officer said to be involved in the murder and the Kingdom's Rapid Intervention Force.

"Those involved in the abhorrent killing of Jamal Khashoggi must be held accountable. With this action, Treasury is sanctioning Saudi Arabia's Rapid Intervention Force and a senior Saudi official who was directly involved in Jamal Khashoggi's murder," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

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But more sanctions may be coming, and these may target none other than Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed, according to a Reuters report. The report cited a UN human rights investigator who said it was "extremely dangerous" on Washington's part to have named Mohammed as involved in the murder but without sanctioning him.

This is where the danger for oil prices lies, really. If the federal U.S. government decides to exit this "extremely dangerous" situation and sanction the Saudi Crown Prince, the Kingdom's knee-jerk reaction would be to threaten the U.S. with flooding oil markets. While we're in the world of speculation, Saudi Arabia may want to resist the knee-jerk reaction, but since there is little else it could do should U.S. sanctions reach its highest government levels, it will probably wield the oil weapon.

Of course, this may be precisely why Washington has not sanctioned Prince Mohammed yet and may not sanction him at all. Despite President Biden's green energy agenda, the oil and gas industry is a major contributor to GDP and an equally major employer: more oil and gas bankruptcies will hardly be welcomed news for Washington.

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Out of the world of speculation and into reality, OPEC+ is meeting later this week to discuss production. The extended cartel's total production fell last month thanks to the deeper Saudi cuts, but these are over now, so output should begin climbing this month. The question is how high it would climb: the AFP reported earlier today internal tensions are running high in OPEC+ and might flare up at the meeting.

"The priorities are well known: Russia wants to return to normal production as quickly as possible while Saudi Arabia wants to benefit from high prices a little longer," the AFP quoted Bjarne Schieldrop, chief analyst at commodities research firm Seb as saying.

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While the oil world awaits the Thursday meeting and its outcome, Congress passed President Biden's $1.9-trillion stimulus program and sent it to the Senate. While it has yet to receive final approval, Congress passing strengthened the U.S. dollar, which usually affects oil prices in a negative way. Fears are also mounting that fuel demand growth in China is slowing down. Still, on the tailwind side, we've got a growing chorus of economist voices expecting a quick rebound for the U.S. economy, which would boost oil demand, to apply counterpressure to all the factors pressuring oil.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Leave a comment
  • George Doolittle on March 02 2021 said:
    "The United States is the new head of OPEC."
    Simple as that.

    Oddly enough the biggest problem with this new *REALITY* is the Texas oil grid and whether it can handle the booming economy down that way as a result with the answer going into Spring/early Summer a resounding "no!" at the moment.

    Long General Electric ticker symbol GE.
    Strong buy.
  • Mamdouh Salameh on March 03 2021 said:
    The global oil market and prices don't like uncertainty. That is why oil prices have been playing a waiting game to see whether OPEC+’s meeting tomorrow will decide to extend the production cuts or ease them.

    One thing is, however, certain. OPEC+ will do nothing to disrupt the current surge in both the global oil demand and prices and will ensure that a demand-supply balance exists in the market. This could mean extending the current production cuts until at least the end of April.

    And while Saudi-US relations could worsen as a result of the Biden administration release of a report implicating the Saudi government in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and threatening sanctions on those involved possibly targeting even the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi answer will be far from a knee-jerk reaction. Saudi Arabia will never flood the global oil market again because like the previous time it will be the ultimate loser.

    But the Saudis could do far better by undermining totally the United States policy towards Iran by reaching a rapprochement with Iran.

    This approach will be far more effective than flooding the market and causing oil process to collapse. Reaching a rapprochement with Iran will strengthen oil prices thus costing the US economy additional billions of dollars in increased crude oil imports and worsening US budget deficit at a time when US shale oil production is facing a steep decline.

    Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
    International Oil Economist
    Visiting Professor of Energy Economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London

Leave a comment




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