China Importing Record Breaking Amounts Of Crude Oil With No End In Sight


"China has imported a record amount of oil from Saudi Arabia this year as U.S. have made it more difficult for Beijing to purchase crude from Iran and Venezuela.

In November, China imported 8.21 million tons of crude oil from the Saudis, pushing the total volume of imports for the first 11 months of 2019 to a record of 76.33 million tons, a 53% surge from the prior year.

Saudi Arabia is now China’s top oil supplier, followed by Russia (70.3 million tons of oil through November, up 9% from ) and Iraq (47.08 million tons, up 13.7%).

On the whole, China imported a record high of 45.74 million tons of oil in November.

November marked the second consecutive month China purchased no oil from Venezuela while imports from Iran amounted to 14.36 million tons the year through November, a 47% plunge from the same period in the prior year.

China is certain to keep purchasing even more Saudi oil as the two nations have established various joint ventures in petroleum refining, storage and sales. Two jointly owned refineries in China, Hengli Petrochemical and Zhejiang Petrochemical, were granted total import quotas of 24.3 million tons of oil in 2019, and that figure is expected to increase in 2020.

China also imported 37 million tons of oil from Brazil through November, a 16.6% jump year-on-year.

Due to the trade war and a 5% tariff on U.S. , China only purchased 6.35 million tons of crude oil from U.S. the first 11 months of the year, a 48% slump from the same period in 2018.

However, as trade tensions with the U.S. , China's unquenchable thirst for crude oil will only continue to surge as it attempts to revitalize a slowing economy.

Put another way, China imported 11.18 million barrels per day in November, the highest monthly figure for any country since the:

https://www.ibtimes.com/china-importing-record-breaking-amounts-crude-oil-no-end-sight-2893000

Friday, December 27th, 2019

Oil seems set to close out the year on a high note. Oil prices are roughly 30 percent higher than they were at the start of the year, although 12 months ago saw a sudden and steep downturn. Still, WTI rose above $61 in recent days, and investors are more bullish than they have been in months. That does not mean that the downside risks have gone away – the IEA still sees a supply surplus in the first quarter – but there is now hope that the market is closer to balance than it has been in a long time.

Shale closes out great/lousy decade. The U.S. shale industry closes the door on a wild decade, complete with record production levels, but also widespread financial wreckage. The growth-at-all-costs business model just won’t cut it in the 2020s, Liam Denning says for Bloomberg Opinion.

2019 shale hype came to an end. After a decade of ups and downs, 2019 may turn out to be a pivotal year – investors began to turn their backs on the shale industry, after repeatedly placing larger and larger bets on the hope that the industry would eventually become profitable. That doesn’t mean that financing has entirely dried up, but in addition to financial hurdles, drillers are also facing rising scrutiny over climate change, which is starting to affect decision-making at big banks.

China launches energy exchange. China plans to launch an energy exchange that will make buying and selling energy-related products much easier. But the exchange will also increase—to the worry of many—China’s geopolitical foothold in new markets.

Oil industry takes another look at Africa. There has been an uptick in interest in offshore oil drilling in Gabon, an indication that Africa could become a prime drilling spot in the 2020s.

2020: The Year of the Electric Car. Automotive analysts say that 2020 could be the year of the electric car due to a wave of new EV models that will hit showrooms. In Europe, the number of EV models available will rise from 100 to 175 by the end of the year. That will rise to 330 by 2025. Analysts say that the market share for EVs could rise from 3.4 to 5.5 percent of all cars sold.

LNG bubble to force shake out. There is a growing consensus that the window for major independent LNG export projects is closing, which means that 2020 could be a shakeout year for the sector. “It's getting late. It's getting dark. It's much tougher,” Michael Webber, an independent LNG analyst and managing partner of Webber Research & Advisory, told S&P Global Platts. “Liquidity issues are going to have real teeth to them next year. The rubber will meet the road for a lot of these projects.” Chinese tariffs on U.S. LNG could also delay project sanctioning.

Nigeria moves forward on LNG. Nigeria and partners Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A), Eni (NYSE: E) and Total SA (NYSE: TOT) gave a final investment decision on Train 7 at its facility in Abuja.

Goldman Sachs: Buy Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Goldman Sachs issued an investment note describing why they have a Buy rating for Chevron (NYSE: CVX) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). Chevron offers positive cash flow and exposure to the Neutral Zone oil fields along the Saudi/Kuwait border, which may soon restart. Conoco has oil producing assets in Alaska, which offers strong margins for Pacific refineries. Meanwhile, Goldman gave ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) a Neutral rating, noting the positive development in Guyana, but the headwinds for its downstream and natural gas assets.

Electric buses and trucks in California threaten CNG market. The 2018 mandate for electric buses in California could be followed by another one for trucks. The development “has not yet received much investor attention,” according to Raymond James. For suppliers of CNG, such as Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE), “fleet electrification represents a structural, long-term headwind,” the bank said.

2020: Strong non-OPEC supply growth. While the U.S. has accounted for virtually all of non-OPEC supply growth in recent years, there is “some kind of awakening” occurring now that will likely see increases from elsewhere in 2020, according to JBC Energy. Norway, Brazil and Guyana will ramp up new projects in 2020. Non-OPEC countries outside of the U.S. have 820,000 bpd in the pipeline. 2020 is expected to be the strongest year-on-year growth outside of OPEC in 15 years.

Big investors swallow up unwanted natural gas assets. The U.S. shale gas industry is in the doldrums, but investors with deep pockets are buying up assets on the cheap. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones invested more than $1 billion in Comstock Resources (NYSE: CRK), which is targeting the Haynesville shale. There are a handful of other similar examples, which amount to bets that some companies will survive the shake out. “Having deep pockets willing to step into the fourth quarter of a gas bloodbath creates unique opportunities that appear late cycle when traditional capital is exhausted,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts wrote in a recent note. Tudor Pickering summed it up: “The punch line is simple,” the analysts wrote, “survive in 2020 to thrive in 2023.”

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week.

Best Regards,

Tom Kool
Editor, Oilprice.com

P.S. – Oilprice.com's new and improved app is now officially available for FREE. If you don't like it... you can delete it. But I bet you won't. Download it today and get started right away!

Du må huske på at det utbytte vi fikk den 20 desember, gjelder for perioden i sommer. Altså JULI - da var markedet mye dårligere. Det er ikke alle som har fått med seg at utbytte som betales ut gjelder så langt tilbake som for seks måneder siden.

Jan H utbyttet som ble utbetalt i desember var for Q 3 (altså fra 1st i 6 til 1st i 9 ).

Oslo (TDN Direkt): Det ble rapportert om 10 VLCC-slutninger fredag.

Det fremgår av en slutningsliste fra Fearnleys.

Det ble sluttet seks reiser fra AG, der to går til Kina, en går til Taiwan, en går til Malaysia, en går til Østen og en går til Rødehavet.

Videre ble det sluttet tre reiser til Østen, der to går fra USA-gulfen og en går fra Brasil. Det ble også sluttet en reise fra Nederland til India.

==============================================================
Størrelse Strekning WS-rate TCE($)
280 AG/USG 67 38.000
270 AG/Korea 135 93.800
260 V-Afr/Kina 125 91.400
==============================================================
Bunkerspris ($/MT 380 CST) VLSFO
==============================================================
Fujairah - 302 770
Singapore - 363 700
Rotterdam - 295 585
==============================================================
Slutningstelling AG:
==============================================================
Jan'19 - 61
Des'19 - 145
Nov'19 - 147
==============================================================
LK finans@tdn.no

Infront TDN Direkt, +47 21 95 60 70

Ikke akkurat, Nyttårsrakketter fra Jemen - Dozens of Saudis killed in ballistic missile strike, Yemeni rebels say

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/1577535510-dozens-of-saudis-killed-in-ballistic-missile-strike-yemeni-rebels-say?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=intl_middle_east&utm_content=en1&hootPostID=9a3c5119919601b25942426093e1d831

Øker Tonmiles

Ikke bruk Stop Loss

Se, Kl. 13,46 4 minutter, plukket market makers, opp kalle, da de droppet fra NOK 110,50 til 104,10

Ja. Det stemmer. Poenget mitt er at disse utbyttene kommer mange måneder etterpå. Noen her har jo reagert på hvorfor det «bare» ble 0,1 UD dollar i utbytte den 20 desember.
Når ratene er så gode. Men svaret er at utbyttet er hentet fra perioden i sommer og høst.