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OPEC+ off-target in July
The producers’ group missed its output increase target for the month and may soon face a critical test of its strategy
The great OPEC+ reset
The quick, unified and decisive strategy to return all the barrels from the hefty tranche of cuts from the eight producers involved in voluntary curbs signals a shift and sets the tone for the path ahead
A third distillate disruption
Diesel market disruptions have propelled crude prices above $100/bl twice in this century, and now oil teeters on the brink of another crude quality crisis
China creates two-tier oil dynamic
There is a bifurcation in the global oil market as China’s stockpiling contrasts with reduced inventories elsewhere
Letter from Austria: OPEC delivers wake-up call
A brutally honest picture about the potential role of oil and gas in 2050 should prompt policymakers to not only reflect but also change course to meet vital energy needs
OPEC+’s extra barrels mostly made of paper
Robust demand and a limited supply of additional physical barrels from key OPEC+ producers has kept the oil market in a healthy price range
Gas pricing finds a new norm
Gas-on-gas competition pricing has grown its share of consumption significantly over the past two decades, primarily at the expense of oil-price-escalation pricing, according to the IGU
Oil demand ramps up air miles
Jet fuel will play crucial role in oil consumption growth even with efficiency gains and environmental curbs, with geopolitical risks highlighting importance of plentiful stocks
Letter from the Middle East: Iran-Israel war risks dire straits
A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would have reverberations that would sound around the world
IEA and OPEC energy assumptions on fragile ground
Geopolitical uncertainty casts a pall over expectations around demand, supply, investment and spare capacity
Energy traders operate largely in the dark
Trading Markets
Stanislav Ermilov
Tallarium
16 June 2023
Follow @PetroleumEcon
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Big Oil’s trading black box

Energy trading is an opaque business, but automated and centralised data processing systems could help lift the lid on the market’s best prices

Of the thousands of investors that attended the AGMs of Shell and BP this year, many may have hoped to gain greater insight into the extent to which energy trading has contributed to the oil majors’ bumper profits. Yet again, they will have been left without a great amount of insight.   The fact is the precise impacts that trading divisions have on the bottom lines of the energy titans are hard to accurately glean. Energy trading has been called ‘black box’ of European energy conglomerates—the opaque, yet apparently highly lucrative, arm of the business of which shareholders have little understanding. This begs the question: why keep investors in the dark? After all, with big oil embarking o

Also in this section
OPEC+ off-target in July
8 August 2025
The producers’ group missed its output increase target for the month and may soon face a critical test of its strategy
The great OPEC+ reset
7 August 2025
The quick, unified and decisive strategy to return all the barrels from the hefty tranche of cuts from the eight producers involved in voluntary curbs signals a shift and sets the tone for the path ahead
Latest EU sanctions largely toothless
7 August 2025
Without US backing, the EU’s newest sanctions package against Russia—though not painless—is unlikely to have a significant impact on the country’s oil and gas revenues or its broader economy
A third distillate disruption
6 August 2025
Diesel market disruptions have propelled crude prices above $100/bl twice in this century, and now oil teeters on the brink of another crude quality crisis

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