Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor and Vikas Dwivedi, are forecasting that U.S. crude inventories will be down by 0.9 million barrels for the week ending June 20, an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team late Monday revealed. “This follows an 11.5 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing significantly tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in the report. “For this week’s crude balance, from refineries, we model a small reduction in crude runs (-0.1 million barrels per day). Among net imports, we model a sharp increase, with exports significantly lower (-0.6 million barrels per day) and imports significantly higher (+0.7 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis,” they added. Timing of cargoes remains a source of potential volatility in this week’s crude balance, the strategists noted in the report. “From implied domestic supply (prod. +adj.+transfers), we look for a small nominal increase (+0.1 million barrels per day) this week. Rounding out the picture, we anticipate another small increase in SPR [Strategic Petroleum Reserve] stocks (+0.2 million barrels) this week,” they added. “Among products, we look for yet another week of builds led by gasoline (+1.5 million barrels) and distillate (+1.1 million barrels), with jet stocks modestly higher (+0.3 million barrels),” they continued. “We model implied demand for these three products at ~14.2 million barrels per day for the week ending June 20,” the Macquarie strategists went on to state in the report. In its latest weekly petroleum status report at the time of writing, which was released on June 18 and included data for the week ending June 13, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by 11.5 million barrels from the week ending June 6

Woodside Energy Group Ltd. has completed the farm-down of a 40 percent stake in its under-construction Louisiana LNG project in Calcasieu Parish to Stonepeak Partners LP. “Under the transaction, Stonepeak will provide US$5.7 billion towards the expected capital expenditure for the foundation development of Louisiana LNG on an accelerated basis, contributing 75 percent of project capital expenditure in both 2025 and 2026”, a joint statement said Tuesday. Woodside made a final investment decision (FID) last April, estimating the gross capital expenditure to be $17.5 billion. The FID approved phase 1, which involves three liquefaction trains with a combined capacity of 16.5 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa). Louisiana LNG holds an Energy Department permit to export a cumulative 1.42 trillion cubic feet a year of natural gas equivalent, or 27.6 MMtpa of LNG according to Woodside, to both FTA and non-FTA countries. “The closing payment of approximately US$1.9 billion received by Woodside reflects Stonepeak’s 75 percent share of capex funding incurred since the effective date of 1 January 2025”, Tuesday’s statement said. Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill commented, “Our partnership with Stonepeak reflects the attractiveness of Louisiana LNG and was a key milestone towards achieving a successful final investment decision”. “The accelerated capital contribution from Stonepeak enhances Louisiana LNG project returns and strengthens our capacity for shareholder returns ahead of first cargo from the Scarborough Energy Project in Western Australia, targeted for the second half of 2026”, O’Neill added. “We continue to see strong interest from additional potential partners in Louisiana LNG”. Days earlier Woodside announced offtakes for Louisiana LNG and the Scarborough Energy Project. In the latter, gas from the Scarborough field will be processed at Pluto LNG, where Woodside is building a second train. Pluto train 2 is designed to produce around five MMtpa of LNG. It is

President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to undermine years of US sanctions on Iran, giving its biggest customer China the green light to carry on buying its oil as he seeks to bolster a ceasefire with Israel. The announcement on social media – which surprised both oil traders and officials in his own government – could undermine the central element of Washington’s Iran policy under multiple administrations, which have sought to cut the regime’s main source of revenue by making its top export off limits. “China can now continue to purchase oil from Iran,” the president said on Truth Social, amid a flurry of posts demanding Israel and Iran cease hostilities. The statement landed only hours after Trump declared the Middle East rivals had agreed to a ceasefire, which got off to a shaky start with early breaches by both sides. It follows massive US airstrikes on several of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities Sunday, an offensive aimed at stopping Tehran from obtaining an atomic weapon. Oil prices extended losses on Tuesday after Trump’s comments, with West Texas Intermediate futures sinking 6 percent to settle near $64 a barrel. Futures plunged as the threat to crude flows from the Israel-Iran conflict faded. US Treasury and State department officials handling Iranian oil sanctions were surprised by Trump’s statement and uncertain how to immediately interpret it, according to people familiar with the situation. In the meantime, however, Treasury will continue to strictly enforce related sanctions, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified given the political and market sensitivity of the issue. Treasury Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, while the State Department referred questions to the White House. A senior White House official later signaled that sanctions would remain, saying that the president continues to call on China and

Preliminary official data showed Norway produced 296.9 million standard cubic meters a day (MMscmd) of natural gas in May, down for the third consecutive month by both sequential and year-on-year comparisons. The month-on-month decrease was 13.2 percent while the year-on-year decrease was 7.9 percent. May’s gas production did beat the official forecast by 800,000 standard cubic meters per day, according to preliminary figures published by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD). The Nordic country sold 9.2 billion standard cubic meters (Bscm) of gas last month. That is down by 1.1 Bscm from April, according to the upstream regulator. Meanwhile Norway’s oil production in May averaged 1.81 million barrels per day (MMbd), down month-on-month and year-over-year. The figure exceeded the NOD projection for May by one percent and the projection for 2025 by 2.1 percent, the NOD said. Total liquid production was 1.98 MMbd, down against April and the same period last year. It fell short of the forecast by 1.2 percent. In late March Equinor ASA started producing oil at the Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea. Recoverable volumes were initially estimated to be 450-650 million barrels but Equinor said it had identified 250-550 million new recoverable barrels. Last Friday the Norwegian majority state-owned energy major said Johan Castberg has ramped up to capacity, or 220,000 barrels of oil per day. “This increases energy deliveries from the Barents Sea by 150 percent”, Equinor said in a press release. Johan Castberg is the third field developed on Norway’s side of the Barents Sea after Snohvit, which went online 2007, and Goliat, which began production 2016. “Johan Castberg represents a gamechanger for the importance of the Barents Sea for Norway’s future as an energy nation. Every three to four days, tank loads now depart from Johan Castberg, each of them worth around

Oil market concerns over Middle East hostilities became almost exclusively focused over the past week on the Strait of Hormuz and the potential for short-term disruption. That’s what analysts at Standard Chartered Bank, including the company’s commodities research head Paul Horsnell, think, a new report sent to Rigzone by the Standard Chartered Bank team on Tuesday revealed. “We do not think any increase in general Middle East risk or other geopolitical implications was priced in; the Strait of Hormuz was the key factor, with potential damage to Iran’s export infrastructure also playing a role, albeit a lesser one,” the analysts said in the report. “The conclusion of the immediate hot war has seemingly removed Hormuz worries almost completely from the market, creating the catalyst for the sudden removal of all the past two weeks’ price gains,” they added. “The apparent change in President Trump’s rhetoric towards a more dovish and less interventionist stance has provided further fuel for the downwards move now that the Hormuz effect has largely been removed from market pricing,” they continued. In the report, the Standard Chartered Bank analysts said they have argued that the threat to Hormuz was always a defensive strategy for Iran, “a threat kept credible in order to deter attacks on Iran’s oil export infrastructure, especially the Kharg Island loading facilities”. They added that “the movement into a quieter phase of the conflict leaves the Hormuz questions unanswered”. “An Iranian policy maker could argue that a credible threat to Hormuz transits succeeded in deterring significant attacks on its export infrastructure, whereas a U.S. policy maker could argue that the threat to Hormuz was not credible because of the projection of U.S. naval and air power,” the analysts noted in the report. “In other words, the lack of disruption in the Hormuz Strait

Naftogaz Group said Tuesday it had asked Gazprom to pay a $1.37 billion arbitration award won by the Ukrainian company in Zurich. “The amount includes the principal debt for gas transit services under the 2019 agreement, as well as delay interest and full compensation for legal expenses incurred by Naftogaz”, Naftogaz said in an online statement. The state-owned integrated oil and gas company said it had won the award June 10. “Should Gazprom fail to comply voluntarily, Naftogaz plans to initiate asset recovery measures targeting the Russian company’s holdings abroad”. Gazprom has yet to respond to Rigzone’s request for comment. Naftogaz added it continues to pursue enforcement of a separate arbitration award of over $5 billion against the Russian government over what the company said was the “illegal expropriation” of its assets in Crimea when Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. Naftogaz won the compensation before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2023. In October 2024 Naftogaz said a Finnish court had granted its motion to freeze certain Russian-owned assets in Finland including real estate in enforcement of the 2023 award. The freeze order by the Helsinki District Court involved tens of millions of dollars, Naftogaz said then. In April 2025 Naftogaz said a French court allowed it to seize Russian assets in French territory pursuant to the 2023 ruling. Announcing the Paris Judicial Court’s grant of a leave to enforce, or exequatur, Naftogaz also said the Dutch Supreme Court had earlier “dismissed the cassation appeal of the Russian Federation to overturn the tribunal’s partial award on jurisdiction and merits”. Naftogaz said it had “registered mortgages” on several Russian state-owned assets in France valued over EUR 120 million ($139.15 million), in enforcement of the French decision. “Naftogaz had been the leading player in the natural gas industry