OPEC

Oil prices remained mostly flat Thursday morning as investors try to figure out how political turmoil in Venezuela could impact the oil market. What Happened On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. officially recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of...

IMO2020 will be the law of the land – or should we say, law of the seas – in a year. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is requiring that ships burn fuel with a sulfur content no greater than 0.5 percent beginning on January 1, 2020. At present, there are areas of major...

A weekly look at what occurred in the oil markets of the U.S. and the world this past week. Oil markets Thursday completed a nine-day stretch of rising prices before reversing course Friday. But consider that on Friday, the business media was getting all excited about the S&P 500 having posted...

United States and Chinese trade officials gathered Jan. 7-9 to discuss ways to "achieve fairness, reciprocity, and balance in trade," a U.S. statement said Wednesday. The U.S. trade delegation will now report back to senior levels of the government to "receive guidance on the next...

--There's so much focus on the IMO2020 rule in the transport sector, as companies start to realize that diverting that much distillate into the marine market could tighten supplies for their own needs. A more pressing switch began occurring this week, when Mexico started requiring ultra low...

WTI crude oil has lost 40 percent since early October, and experts are conflicted on whether the worst is yet to come for the global commodity. Considering Big Dividend Payers One of the biggest contributors to the large decline in oil prices in recent months is an increase in...

--Oil prices fell. They fell by a lot. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, settled Thursday, December 13 at $52.58/barrel on the CME (formerly the Chicago Mercantile Exchange). The price of ultra low sulfur diesel on the CME settled that day at $1.8765/gallon. By the...

Oil staged a nice recovery Friday morning thanks to OPEC's proactive stance in stemming the rot the oil market is going through. What Happened Following the OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting, the two parties reportedly agreed to cut oil production by a cumulative 1.2 million barrels per day...

WTI grade crude oil is once again threatening to break below the $50-per-barrel barrier following two sub-$50 sessions in late November. What Happened Oil opened Thursday's session modestly lower at $52.67, but gyrated between $53.28 and $50.24 amid news emerging out of Vienna, where OPEC...

Among single-country exchange traded funds, the iShares MSCI Qatar ETF (NASDAQ: QAT) doesn't get a lot of attention, but that changed Monday. QAT, the only U.S.-listed ETF focusing on stocks in Qatar, declined on news the country will depart the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (...

Oil was moving 4 percent higher Monday after three weekend developments: Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to extend oil output cuts. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley shocked the oil market with a mandatory province-wide 8.7-percent production cut. Oil-rich Qatar said it will leave the OPEC...

The oil market stabilized Monday following a 6 percent sell-off Friday ahead of this week’s G20 meeting. Saudi Arabia is reportedly producing record levels of crude oil in the month of November, and U.S. President Donald Trump has urged the Saudis not to cut production at the OPEC meeting...

The black gold is falling along with most investment classes, with things turning sore in the final quarter of the year. At the time of writing Tuesday, the WTI grade crude oil was trading at $56.14, down 6.32 percent from the previous session. Rally Interrupted The most recent downtrend began Oct...