Energy Intelligence Briefing articles from August 2004

Energy Intelligence Briefing archives from August 2004

Russian oil exports fall a trickle, shift to Primorsk.
August 2, 2004... Russia is set to cut its August seaborne crude exports by 268,000 metric tons (63,000 barrels per day) from July, according to the port loading programs released so far. But the Russian government should still earn record revenues from the 2.4...

Demand growth still strong but tapering off a little.
August 6, 2004... NEW YORK -- Global oil fundamentals for July showed yet another month of strong demand growth and even higher crude supplies--but year-on-year demand growth is slowing, from over 3 million barrels per day in March and April to less than 2...

West African sweets in high demand, but sours lag.
August 10, 2004... LONDON -- West African sweet/sour differentials have run in opposite directions for most of this month, with premiums on light, sweet grades soaring and discounts on heavier fare plumbing painful depths. This stretched light/heavy differentials...

Saudi Arabia calms market, ready to pump more oil.
August 11, 2004... NEW YORK -- Addressing fears that the world was running out of oil, Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi on Wednesday successfully prevented oil prices from clawing back over $45 by claiming the kingdom has been producing 9.3 million barrels...

Venezuela's output secure--with or without Chavez.
August 13, 2004... WASHINGTON -- Venezuelan government officials turned up the political heat Friday, warning that oil workers from state-owned oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) would not tolerate changes to company policies if President Hugo Chavez would...

Fundamentals fight losing battle against fear factors.
August 19, 2004... NEW YORK -- Supply/demand fundamentals look much less threatening to oil prices than they did at the beginning of the year, but a market fueled by supply fears is smelling $50 per barrel, which seems to have become a giant magnet. Less...

Traders say oil too costly, but Iraq set to lift sales.
August 26, 2004... NEW YORK -- Iraq's southern oil exports surged to over 1.7 million barrels per day on Thursday as three vessels were loading at the Basrah Oil Terminal--but overall exports for the month of August are expected to come in at only just over 1.2...

Transneft scandal draws scrutiny, Russian exports dip.
August 27, 2004... MOSCOW -- Seaborne Russian crude exports are set to dip by 18,000 barrels per day in September from August, as a scandal over the current underutilization of national pipeline operator Transneft's system is under scrutiny. The reduced September...