Brent Oil US$45.1/bbl vs US$45.5/bbl yesterday
WTI Oil US$42.2/bbl vs US$42.4bbl yesterday
Natural Gas US$2.43/mmbtu vs US$2.33/mmbtu yesterday
Oil Price News
Oil prices settled slightly lower yesterday even as OPEC+ almost fully complied in July with their global production cut accord, and after US officials confirmed China is in compliance with the first phase of the two nations’ trade deal
The JTC met yesterday and the JMMC are meeting today, however preliminary reports are that they will not be discussing any revisions of the ongoing production cut pact and are not expected to make any major decisions to tweak the deal
At last month’s panel meetings in mid-July, the JMMC noted an improved an improved compliance with the cuts
The overall compliance rate for the OPEC+ group was a record-breaking 107% in June, but it was due to the additional voluntary contributions from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, which cut a total of 1MMbopd in June on top of their shares of the cuts
Without those three voluntary outperformers, the OPEC+ group’s compliance was 95% in June, which still was the highest since the cuts started in January 2017
In July, OPEC’s production rose by 980,000bopd month over month to average 23.17MMbopd
Of note in the group’s July production is OPEC’s secondary sources estimate that oil production in Iraq – the biggest laggard in compliance which has promised to cut much more to offset poor compliance – saw its production rise by 39,000bopd to average 3.752MMbopd
Gas Price News
Natural gas prices moved higher again yesterday as the weather is expected to remain warmer than normal throughout the US west coast, significantly increasing cooling demand
There are two storms in the Atlantic Ocean headed for the Caribbean
One has an 80% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone and the other a 30% chance
These storms have a trajectory that could take them into the Gulf of Mexico which could be damaging to natural gas infrastructure
This should increase volatility for natural gas prices