Laura Huchzermeyer
Associate editor 
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February 6, 2019 16:09 UTC 
(1)
Strong demand for sour crude grades helped boost LOOP Sour deliveries in January. In a recent report from the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the company said LOOP Sour demand nearly tripled month on month, increasing by some 620,000 barrels to more than 985,000 barrels, which is about 32,000 b/d. It was the largest volume of LOOP Sour crude pulled from the Louisiana storage cavern since September. |
Andrew Critchlow
Head of news, EMEA
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February 6, 2019 10:13 UTC
(0)
Venezuela should be a global oil-exporting superpower. Instead, the Marxist junta ruling the country teeters on the brink of complete economic collapse, with hyperinflation reminiscent of Weimar Germany and the chances of a political coup d’état in Caracas rising every day. Despite its enfeebled state, Venezuela punches above its weight in oil markets. Uncertainty over its supply has helped to push up prices by almost 20% since the start of the year. That’s because many refineries in Texas and Louisiana – America’s fuel-producing engine – are configured to process Venezuela’s heavy blend of crude. |
Siobhan Hall
Senior editor, EU energy policy 
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February 5, 2019 06:30 UTC
(1)
Renewables are the big winners in the European Union’s new power market rules, which are designed to help the grid cope with ever increasing shares of variable sources such as wind and solar. This is part of the EU’s long-term push to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and reduce fossil fuel imports. |
Starr Spencer
Senior Writer
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February 4, 2019 15:09 UTC
(1)
Activity in what has been a mostly sluggish US Gulf of Mexico is expected to increase modestly in 2019, bringing production growth and more exploration aimed at finding the elephant fields of the future. Brent crude has fallen $20 from highs in the mid-$80s/b months ago, but US Gulf operators, especially in deepwater, aren’t fazed by volatile prices, analysts say. Instead, operators are deciding to grow in the gulf because of the industry’s increasing ability to make those fields more economic. |
Arsalan Syed
Natural Gas Pricing Analyst 
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February 4, 2019 06:30 UTC
(0)
The Upper Midwest market has become the crossroads of America for natural gas, and finding that sweet spot helped the region get through a record-breaking freeze without breaking the bank. Chicago demand reached an all-time high of 10.65 Bcf January 30, but cash prices in the region experienced a decline as inflows ramped up to add bearish sentiment. |
Glenn Rickson
Head of European Power Analysis, S&P Global Platts Analytics
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January 31, 2019 10:03 UTC
(2)
This week marks the start of a new phase in London-Brussels relations. But it has nothing to do with Brexit, and it won’t be political power returning to Westminster as a result of the UK’s departure from the European Union. Instead, the power flowing across the English Channel will be of the electrical variety, as the Nemo electricity interconnector – the first direct connection between the UK and Belgium – begins commercial operations on 31st January. The 1 GW link will be capable of supplying enough power to meet the electricity needs of 2.2 million UK homes. |
Diana Kinch
Editor-in-Chief, Steel Markets Daily 
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January 30, 2019 09:33 UTC
(3)
The iron ore market’s structural change last year is all to do with the environment, and led by demand patterns in China. Iron ore with a higher content of iron, Fe, allows a reduction of coal usage in the steelmaking process, lowering carbon emissions. So trade has shifted away from the standard 62% Fe-quality base – the traditional iron ore benchmark product – to a multi-tier market. This includes specialty products that may be tailor-made for specific steel mills, with premiums, penalties and spreads between product values quite the order of the day. |
Laura Huchzermeyer, Catherine Wood and Mary Hogan
Editors, Americas crude oil markets
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January 29, 2019 14:49 UTC
(0)
US light sweet crudes such as WTI Midland and Bakken have been offered into Asia at lower premiums in recent months amid a drop in freight rates from the US Gulf Coast to the Far East, sources in Asia said Monday. Taiwan’s CPC was heard to have bought 4 million barrels of WTI Midland crude from an unknown seller for March Loading. The cargo was priced around a $2.25/b premium to Dated Brent on a CIF Taiwan basis. CPC seems to enter the US Gulf Coast market when prices are ideal. The company last bought 4 million barrels of WTI Midland for January loading. But CPC did not seek any WTI spot cargoes for February. |
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James Burgess
Editor
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January 29, 2019 06:30 UTC
(2)
Shareholder activism has a long history in commodities. In the early 17th century, Isaac Le Maire, grain trader and disgruntled former governor of the Dutch East India Company, attempted to break the company’s monopoly by speculatively trading its shares. His scheme failed, but Le Maire’s desire to shake up the status quo of the trade route between Europe and India eventually led to the discovery of Cape Horn. |
Tim Bradner
Contributor
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January 28, 2019 06:30 UTC
(2)
Rapid technology advances are allowing explorers and producers in Alaska to add hundreds of millions of barrels of new resources to portfolios at a cost competitive with finding oil in the Lower 48 states. Chief among the technologies being used are advanced 3-D seismic and new data processing techniques, to define and map oil deposits in geological formations that have long been known, but were thought to be unproductive. |
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