Schlumberger Sees Shale Growth Slowing
February 26, 2020
The API inventory report showed that crude stocks were up 1.3 million barrels. This compares with the Reuters outlook for a build of 2 million and the Bloomberg estimate of a 1.815 million barrel build.
Gasoline stocks on the API were up 74,000 barrels compared with Reuters calling for a 2.2 million barrel decline and Bloomberg calling for a 2.083 million barrel decline.
Distillate stocks according to the API were down 706,000 barrels and Reuters is calling for a decline of 1.7 million and Bloomberg is calling for 1.586 million barrel decline.
The news is not good again today on the coronavirus and that is keeping markets moving lower.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention alerted Americans to begin preparing for the spread of the coronavirus in the US after the virus spread in several more countries. Dr. Nancy Messennier, the CDC head of respiratory diseases, said “the data of over the past week about the spread in other countries has raised our level of concern and expectations that we are going to have community spread here.” What is not known, is when it will arrive and how severe a US outbreak might be. Separately, US Health and Human Services Secretary, Alex Azar, told a Senate subcommittee there will likely be more cases in the US, and asked lawmakers to approve $2.5 billion in funding to fight the outbreak.
IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol, said the IEA’s outlook on global oil demand growth has declined to its lowest level in a decade. He added that it could be reduced further due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Demand is expected to contract by 435,000 bpd in the first quarter, the first quarterly decline since the financial crisis. For 2020 as a whole, the IEA has lowered its global demand growth forecast by 365,000 bpd to 825,000 bpd.
The Chief Executive of Schlumberger said US shale oil output growth will slow to 600,000 to 700,000 bpd in 2020 and to 200,000 bpd in 2021.
The inventory report today is likely to have little impact unless there is a major surprises.
Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Price Abdulaziz bin Salman, said he was confident that OPEC and its non-OPEC allies, the so-called OPEC+ group, would response responsibly to the spread of the coronavirus. He Said OPEC+ should not be complacent about the coronavirus. He also said Saudi Arabia and Russia would continue to engage regarding oil policy. He said he was still speaking with Russia and that he was confident of Saudi Arabia’s partnership[ with the rest of the OPEC+ group. Many trader think even if OPEC+ does make addition cuts to production at their March meeting it will not have much impact near term as the fear over coronavirus is too great currently.