Continued Decline in Oil Prices and an Increase in US Inventories

Continued Decline in Oil Prices: The American Petroleum Institute (API) announced yesterday,
Tuesday, March 23, 2021, that crude oil inventories rose by 2.927 million barrels for the week ending March 19.

Analysts had expected the volume of inventory to be much less, at 272 thousand barrels, for this week.

In the previous week, the American Petroleum Institute recorded a drop in oil inventories
by one million barrels after analysts had expected an increase of 2.964 million barrels.

Weekly Oil Prices

After oil prices dropped last week, the drop increased even more
before the American Petroleum Institute data released on Tuesday.

At midday, before the data was released,
WTI fell $ 3.91 per day (-6.35%) to $ 57.48 – down $ 7 a barrel from last week
as new EU lockdowns threaten to further reduce oil demand, as well.

Brokers are looking to liquidate their businesses.

The benchmark Brent crude oil price decreased to $ 4.13 at the same time (-6.39%)
to $ 60.49 – about $ 8 a barrel for the week.

After the American Petroleum Institute data was released,
the WTI crude index was trading at $ 57.52, while Brent crude was trading at $ 60.52.

Weekly Energy Production Rates

US oil production remained unchanged in the week ending on March 12
with a daily production rate of 10.9 million barrels,
according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The American Petroleum Institute announced a decline in gasoline inventories
of 3.728 million barrels for the week ending March 19,
in addition to a drop of 926,000 barrels in the previous week.

Analysts had expected an increase of 1.186 million barrels for this week.

Distillate inventories also witnessed an increase this week,
amounting to 246 thousand barrels, after an increase of 904 thousand barrels last week.

Cushing’s inventory ratio decreased by 2.282 million barrels.

Results of Yemen’s Attack on Saudi Aramco

The Saudi-led coalition forces carried out airstrikes against Houthi military bases in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa,
Bloomberg reported, citing a Houthi TV channel and local residents.

These are the last airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis, after the Yemeni rebel group,
affiliated with Iran, had previously struck a Saudi oil target earlier this month.

The Houthi forces directed the Quds-2 cruise missile, with the aim of hitting a Saudi Aramco facility in Jeddah,
but the Saudi side confirmed that the attack did not cause any damage.

The Houthis have warned that there will be more attacks directed against Saudi targets,
and have advised foreign companies and residents of Saudi Arabia to be careful.

But the Saudi response came very quickly, as it carried out a series of airstrikes,
32 of which were carried out on March 9 only, according to what “Zero Hedge” reported at the time.

The Saudi-Houthi conflict dates back to 2015.

Many see this as a proxy war between the Saudis and Iranian supporters of the Yemeni rebel group,
which overthrew the Yemeni government and tried to take power over the country.

Oil facilities in Saudi Arabia are considered a preferred target for the Houthis due to the kingdom’s
heavy dependence on oil revenues.

The most prominent attack that the Houthi group claimed responsibility for was the September 2019 attacks,
which targeted Saudi Aramco oil facilities, which cut 5% of the daily global supplies for several weeks,
which led to an increase in oil prices.

But Saudi Arabia and the United States considered Iran to be responsible for the attack, not the Houthis.

Contributions of Major US Oil Companies to Preserving the Environment

Interest in climate change and green investment has recently emerged.

Just three years ago, the major oil companies did not pay attention to climate change or environmentally responsible investment in their collective conferences, but the trend changed at the level of the world,
and global motives grew for creating solutions that are less harmful to the environment,
in support of sustainability and transparency.

Bloomberg’s analysis

According to Bloomberg’s analysis of recent conference call transcripts for 23 components of the S&P 500 energy,
the largest US oil companies are increasingly talking about performance and methods for reducing emissions,
and investments in new, clean, low-carbon technology.

Senior executives are stressing the word “sustainability”,
which was used nearly 300 times during conference calls,
up from “only” 36 times at the same time last year.

That year, all of Europe’s major oil companies including BP, Shell, Total, Eni, Equinor,
and Repsol pledged to become zero-carbon high-emissions companies by or before 2050.

Meanwhile, governments around the world have pledged to restore greening operations to get rid of the epidemic that has afflicted their economies.

American oil companies

American oil companies are rated slower than their European competitors in pledging to zero
in their net emissions, but some have started to do so since the end of last year.

ConocoPhillips and Occidental

ConocoPhillips and Occidental became the first companies from the US oil industry to announce net-zero emissions plans.

in October ConocoPhillips revealed its target to reduce emissions from its processes to zero
by 2045-2055 and stated that its targets were in line with the Paris Agreement goal
of limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 ° C.

Occidental also announced in November its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.

Big companies

Big companies such as (Supermajors), (Exxon) and (Chevron) have not set any targets for contributing
to zero emissions or reducing emissions to curb global warming.

However, like other US oil companies,
they talk about cutting emissions and investments in low-carbon energy sources.

Earlier this month

During Investors Day earlier this month, Exxon outlined its plan to boost the development
of carbon and hydrogen capture technologies and said it was
“in a position to succeed” in these two areas.

Chevron has pledged to achieve a low carbon, days after it said it would work with a unit of oilfield services giant Schlumberger,
as well as with Microsoft and the private company Clean Energy Systems,
to build a bioenergy plant using carbon capture technology that would produce negative carbon energy in California.

Continued Decline in Oil Prices and an Increase in US Inventories

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