The Oil Man: Shell, Cabot Energy
25th April 2018 11:27
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WTI $67.70 -94c, Brent $73.86 -85c, Diff -$6.16 +9c, NG $2.78 +4c
Centre stage yesterday belonged to Presidents Trump and Macron, for heaven's sake guys, get a room… The love-in appears to have eased the severity of the Donald's view of the sanctions on I ran which may now not be so drastic, it also ties in with his usual pattern of tweet anger followed by amelioration.
In the meantime, Iran itself is preparing for the worst by increasing production and suggesting that the oil price is high enough to consider disbanding the OPEC/Non-OPEC agreement.
The API stats were a mixed bag, an unexpected build of 1.1 million barrels of crude but a draw at Cushing about evened each other out and a big draw in both gasoline and distillates edged in favour of being bullish, this morning crude is up around 20c.
Shell
I only mention as it references a theme I have been banging on about for some time, viz industry costs.
They have announced that they have gone ahead with the FID on their Vito development in the GOM which has a breakeven price of 'sub $35 (£25) a barrel'.
Whilst many in the industry have written off the GOM, and it was one of the first areas to get the capex chop, it may be that we should expect to see a few more deep water developments back in the limelight.
Cabot Energy
has announced that they have received approval for an exploration well at Vesta project offshore Sicily.
So only around ten years to go then... Only joking but as Cabot has 100% of this the farm-out process has begun in earnest and there are a number of companies looking at the area seriously. I am due to meet with Cabot shortly and will be able to get all the griff on Italy then.
And finally…
The night, at least for 80 minutes, belonged to the HubCap Stealers who romped into a 5-0 lead which would have made a final place a certainty as Mo Salad celebrated being footballer of the year in style. A couple of late goals from Roma made for squeaky bum time but surely they can't blow this from here…
Malcolm Graham-Wood is an independent oil industry expert and freelance contributor, not a direct employee of Interactive Investor.
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