By Grant Smith
Brent crude, a global benchmark, is trading above $100 a barrel for a 23rd
consecutive month, the longest stretch in data starting in 1988. Prices will
average more than $100 this year and in each of the next three years, according
to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. It traded at $110.27 a barrel at
11:10 a.m. in London.
Iraq’s
production contracted 7 percent since reaching a 35-year peak of 3.6 million
barrels a day in February, according to the International Energy Agency. The Basrah Oil Terminal in southern Iraq is scheduled to load
2.5 million barrels a day of crude for export this month and 2.7 million in
June, according to loading programs obtained by Bloomberg
News.
Shipments from
the south, the only region exporting regularly, will probably stall at about
2.5 million barrels a day, unless work on storage tanks, pumping stations and
other infrastructure is completed, the Paris-based IEA said in a report May 15.
“There are
still lots of uncertainties regarding deliveries,” B.K. Namdeo, refineries
director at Hindustan Petroleum Corp., said in Mumbai on May 13. “If the situation
continues or worsens, we may have to cut Iraqi oil imports next year and switch
to countries like Iran.”
Credit:
Bloomberg.net
No comments:
Post a Comment