Oil advanced, with traders weighing short-term supply risks against further signs of Chinese economic weakness. West Texas Intermediate rose 0.8% to settle near $74 a barrel, tacking on its seventh gain in the last nine sessions. Oil prices fell more than 1% on Wednesday after futures failed to breach a key technical level. Crude’s strong start to 2025 has been supported by continued US inventory drawdowns and potential risks to Iranian supply in a second Donald Trump presidency. Cold weather is expected to boost demand for heating fuels this month, and Russia’s seaborne crude exports recently slumped to their lowest since August 2023. Cold weather will boost first-quarter demand for heating oil, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas by 500,000 to 700,000 barrels a day, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said in a note Thursday. At the high end, that’s more than 40% of the 1.6 million barrel-a-day increase in total oil demand the bank expects for the period. “Winter comprises a sizable chunk of energy demand, but the swings from normal to deep-freeze conditions will have effects on both supply and demand for oil,” analysts including Natasha Kaneva said in the note. Limiting crude’s gains, consumer inflation in China fell further toward zero, a setback for government efforts to revive demand. Recent strength in the US dollar has also made commodities priced in the currency — including oil — less attractive to some buyers. Concerns also persist that supplies may exceed demand. Many banks have retained their bearish outlooks, and Standard Chartered Plc cut its 2025 Brent crude forecast by $5, to $87 a barrel, and lowered its first-quarter estimate by $7, to $82. “The outlook is slightly bearish,” Viktor Katona, head of oil analysis at consultancy Kpler, said at the online Gulf Intelligence Outlook Forum. “We’re not going to

A rally in liquefied natural gas has pushed Asian prices to a rare and substantial premium over oil, paving the way for major consumers to shift to cheaper but dirtier fuels. Japan-Korea marker prices for LNG, the Asian benchmark, were as much as 22% more expensive than Brent crude earlier this month on an energy-equivalent basis, according to Bloomberg calculations. Gas prices have risen on cold winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere and the loss of Russian pipeline flows via Ukraine, increasing competition between European and Asian buyers. Conditions appear ripe for electricity generators and big industrial consumers to switch from gas to oil products. Many Asian power plants sometimes run on fuel oil, while it’s also possible to use diesel-type fuels for industry, heating and transport. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR Bloomberg

Oil companies declined to bid in a US government auction for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as industry interest wanes in a region that’s rich with crude but difficult to develop.   The Interior Department said it received no bids for the auction mandated by Congress before those offers were set to be unsealed Friday. It marked the second time in four years an auction of oil and gas leases in the refuge’s 1.6-million-acre coastal plain flopped, coming after a 2021 sale held under President-elect Donald Trump drew just 11 high bids, most of which were lodged by an Alaska economic development corporation.  Ultimately, all of the leases sold in that 2021 auction were forfeited, with two relinquished and seven others canceled by Interior. The industry’s no-show this week underscores the legal, social and economic challenges of drilling in the Coastal Plain, despite US Geological Survey estimates the region might hold between 4.3 billion and 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude.  “The lack of interest from oil companies in development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge reflects what we and they have known all along: There are some places too special and sacred to put at risk with oil and gas drilling,” said Laura Daniel-Davis, the acting deputy Interior secretary.  Congress in 2017 mandated two coastal plain oil auctions by late 2024 as a way to pay for the Trump-era tax cuts, based on arguments the sales and oil development would yield more than $2 billion in government revenue over a decade. But the lackluster industry interest in the resulting sales has “exposed the false promises made in the Tax Act,” Daniel-Davis said.  The failed sale also sets up a challenge for the incoming president. Trump has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and unleash domestic energy production — even at the cost

As banks redefine their net zero commitments, the cost of capital is rising, which could hamper decarbonisation efforts. The UK’s market review of transition financing recommended new benchmarks for financing decarbonisation projects, but has been accused of a lack of clear “progress”. Banks are withdrawing from the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a United Nations group to align lending with net-zero goals, following pressure from regulators. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan left the net-zero alliance this month, following the recent withdrawal of other big banks including Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. The mass exit of banks from a pivotal international climate alliance comes amid growing scrutiny of their commitments to environmental, social and governance pledges. The Republican-led House judiciary committee wrote to 60 asset managers in December to ask them to justify what Republicans described as “woke” climate pledges. In July, Republican committee chair Jim Jordan sent letters to key members of the NZBA, including BlackRock and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, over what he described as the “potentially harmful effects” of a ‘coordinated’ agreement to decarbonise assets. The NZBA operates alongside the Glasgow Financial Alliance, which is run by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, the UN’s special envoy for climate action. © BloombergFormer Bank of England governor Mark Carney. ‘Messy’ “The energy transition – it is messy,” said Bruce Huber, chief executive of Alexa Capital, a London-based independent investment bank with an office in New York that focuses on energy infrastructure. “In that post-pandemic period, we’ve had a whole bunch of energy transition funds raised under Article 9, which means that they’re prohibited from investing in anything but the low-carbon economy.” In Huber’s view, the mass exit from the NZBA is “more about keeping the capital flowing into conventional energy groups”, especially

Bill Petrie, “oilfield legend” and stalwart of the oil and gas industry, has died aged 70. Having worked in the industry in the north-east since the 1970s, he is perhaps best known for his time at Wireline Engineering. Tributes have flooded in for the firm’s former chairman, managing director, and co-owner. Ellon-born Orcadian who made Balmedie home for decades Born in 1954 in Ellon, Bill’s family roots were in Orkney, but he was the only one of six siblings to be born after they moved to mainland Scotland. He grew up just outside Perth. In 1972 he went to Aberdeen University to study physics, chemistry, geography and geology. © Supplied by suppliedBill Petrie with his wife of 48 years, Jess. There he met his wife Jess, whom he married in 1976 in Lossiemouth. The couple, who went on to have two sons, never left the Balmedie area after settling there in 1986. Oil and gas breakthrough led to Middle East move After gaining diplomas in Business Management and Marketing from Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology, and faced with a difficult labour market, Bill secured a labouring job with John Fleming Timber Merchants in 1977. However, it wasn’t long before his potential was spotted. A move to an office job gave him the experience needed to begin his business career. Bill finally got his breakthrough in the oil and gas industry in 1978, with The Analysts, a subsidiary of Schlumberger. © Supplied by suppliedBill as a young father after returning from Egypt. In 1982 he and Jess moved to Egypt where Bill spent a year setting up a new base for Middle East operations in Cairo. Wireline opened up world of opportunities for Bill In the 1980s and 90s Bill went on to work with Geo Vann and Neyrfor Weir, among

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 1.0 million barrels from the week ending December 27 to the week ending January 3, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. Crude oil stocks, excluding the SPR, stood at 414.6 million barrels on January 3, 415.6 million barrels on December 27, and 432.4 million barrels on January 5, 2024, the report revealed. Crude oil in the SPR came in at 393.8 million barrels on January 3, 393.6 million barrels on December 27, and 355.0 million barrels on January 5, 2024, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.628 billion barrels on January 3, the report revealed. This figure was up 5.3 million barrels week on week and up 13.0 million barrels year on year, the report outlined. “At 414.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report. “Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 6.3 million barrels from last week and are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories decreased last week while blending components inventories increased last week,” it added. “Distillate fuel inventories increased by 6.1 million barrels last week and are about four percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/ propylene inventories decreased by 2.5 million barrels from last week and are nine percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued. In the report, the EIA noted that U.S. crude