IEA, EIA Forecasts: Gloom Over Oil Demand Will Only Get Worse - Bloomberg:
As I warned last week, oil demand growth is drying up and it’s not over yet. Two of the major oil agencies have just cut their forecasts for incremental demand this year, but they haven’t gone far enough.
The revisions to full-year oil demand growth by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) were almost small enough to be shrugged off. The real worry is in the detail.
On Tuesday the EIA, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, cut its 2019 oil demand growth forecast to 1.01 million barrels a day. That was down by 60,000 barrels a day from the previous month’s view – a tiny revision in a 100-million barrel market. Then on Friday the Paris-based IEA cut its forecast to 1.08 million barrels a day from the 1.18 million it predicted in July. That, too, could be dismissed as another minor tweak.
Sunday, 11 August 2019
Russia to Leapfrog #Saudi in Wealth League as Oil Power Shifts - Bloomberg
Russia to Leapfrog Saudi in Wealth League as Oil Power Shifts - Bloomberg:
The shifting balance of power in the oil world is showing up in a new indicator: central bank reserves.
For the first time in eight years, the Bank of Russia’s total stockpile of cash, gold and other securities is about to surpass Saudi Arabia’s, highlighting the Kremlin’s leverage in talks between major oil producers about how much to reduce production.
While Saudi Arabia has been draining its reserves to cover social spending amid low oil prices, Russia has tightened its budget and is running a surplus amid fears of new sanctions. With Russia increasingly the deciding voice in discussions with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the financial divergence is the latest sign of the changing fortunes between the big oil players.
The shifting balance of power in the oil world is showing up in a new indicator: central bank reserves.
For the first time in eight years, the Bank of Russia’s total stockpile of cash, gold and other securities is about to surpass Saudi Arabia’s, highlighting the Kremlin’s leverage in talks between major oil producers about how much to reduce production.
While Saudi Arabia has been draining its reserves to cover social spending amid low oil prices, Russia has tightened its budget and is running a surplus amid fears of new sanctions. With Russia increasingly the deciding voice in discussions with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the financial divergence is the latest sign of the changing fortunes between the big oil players.
#Saudi Prince’s Rise to Power Turns Him Into A Billionaire Boss - Bloomberg
Saudi Prince’s Rise to Power Turns Him Into A Billionaire Boss - Bloomberg:
It was an unprecedented move against once-inviolable power figures in the kingdom, framed as a crackdown on corruption.
To pull it off, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman turned the marble-floored Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh into a prison in November 2017 for hundreds of men. Many of the captives—some of them his relatives and princes in their own rights—were released only after agreeing to sign over to the government assets including land, cash and business stakes. The total recovered, Saudi authorities said, was some $107 billion.
That sensational show of power upended decades of unwritten rules within the secretive House of Saud and effectively sidelined the crown prince’s potential opponents in one sweep. With his rise in the kingdom’s pecking order to presumptive heir to the throne, he became not only the de facto political leader of the petro-state but the unrivaled billionaire boss of a sprawling family firm with more money than almost any other dynasty on the planet.
It was an unprecedented move against once-inviolable power figures in the kingdom, framed as a crackdown on corruption.
To pull it off, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman turned the marble-floored Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh into a prison in November 2017 for hundreds of men. Many of the captives—some of them his relatives and princes in their own rights—were released only after agreeing to sign over to the government assets including land, cash and business stakes. The total recovered, Saudi authorities said, was some $107 billion.
That sensational show of power upended decades of unwritten rules within the secretive House of Saud and effectively sidelined the crown prince’s potential opponents in one sweep. With his rise in the kingdom’s pecking order to presumptive heir to the throne, he became not only the de facto political leader of the petro-state but the unrivaled billionaire boss of a sprawling family firm with more money than almost any other dynasty on the planet.
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