Predicting oil prices
Bulging stocks, US output gains and Opec's need to make further production cuts are derailing a recovery in oil prices, according to AOGC 2017’s conference chairman
Rising inventories suggest oil prices could well head down before any recovery, though the crude market is likely to reach balance earlier than its gas counterpart, according to Fereidun Fesharaki, AOGC 2017 conference chairman. "What impacts the price is not actually supply-demand fundamentals. The paper players—the speculators in the market—they only watch one thing: inventories," he told delegates. With a luminous crystal ball at his side to inform his future-gazing, Fesharaki, chairman of consultancy FGE, said that while players across the oil industry had done a remarkable job in ensuring compliance with production cuts demanded by Opec, oil inventories were stubbornly refusing to go do
Also in this section
8 December 2025
The Caribbean country’s role in the global oil market is significantly diminished, but disruptions caused by outright conflict would still have implications for US Gulf Coast refineries
5 December 2025
Mistaken assumptions around an oil bull run that never happened are a warning over the talk of a supply glut
4 December 2025
Time is running out for Lukoil and Rosneft to divest international assets that will be mostly rendered useless to them when the US sanctions deadline arrives in mid-December
3 December 2025
Aramco’s pursuit of $30b in US gas partnerships marks a strategic pivot. The US gains capital and certainty; Saudi Arabia gains access, flexibility and a new export future
