Traders Take to Oil Tankers (Barrons Video)

Traders Take to Oil Tankers (Barrons Video)
6/11/2009

(Video) Barron's Steve Sears discusses how traders are buying oil tanker stocks to profit from rising oil prices.

IEA Raises Oil Outlook for First Time in 10 Months

IEA Raises Oil Outlook for First Time in 10 Months

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency raised its global oil-demand forecast for the first time in 10 months on signs that the economic slowdown is abating.

The adviser to 28 nations increased its global oil demand estimate for this year by 120,000 barrels a day to 83.3 million barrels a day, driven by consumption in U.S. and China. Consumption worldwide will contract by 2.9 percent from last year, the biggest drop since 1981, the agency said in its monthly report today.

“These revisions do not necessarily imply the beginnings of a global economic recovery, and may only signal the bottoming out of the recession,” the Paris-based agency said. “It’s a fairly modest uptick. Underlying demand levels remain weak.”

Oil prices have climbed 61 percent this year. They traded above $72 a barrel in New York today for the first time in seven months on growing optimism about an economic recovery and as a weaker dollar drives investors toward commodities. Futures in New York rebounded to a seven-month high of $72.30 after the release of the report from as low as $71.32 earlier in the day.

Confidence in the world economy rose for a third month as U.S. job losses slowed and global production improved, a Bloomberg survey of users showed yesterday. A U.S. Labor Department report on June 5 showed the country lost the fewest number of jobs since September last month.
Tighter Fundamentals

Rallying crude prices have been driven by both tighter supply-demand fundamentals and “short-term flows” of speculative capital, David Fyfe, head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, said in a phone interview from Paris.

Analysts expect prices to average $61 a barrel in the fourth quarter of this year, according to the median of forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said this month it expects oil to reach $85 by the end of the year,

The outlook for 2009 consumption in the most industrialized countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, was raised “marginally” to 45.2 million barrels a day. Inventories of crude and refined products in these nations amounted to 62 days of demand as of the end of April.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0JQcQcnQLFs

152nd (Ordinary) Meeting of the OPEC Conference in Vienna, March 15

152nd (Ordinary) Meeting of the OPEC Conference

Next OPEC Meeting in Vienna
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Vienna, Austria
http://www.opec.org/home/

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
Monthly Oil Market Report, February 2009 (Download PDF)
The Monthly Oil Market Report contains a wealth of information, including developments in the world economy, data on oil prices, supply and demand, crude and product stocks and much more.

World Oil Outlook 2008 (Download PDF)
OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2008 is part of the Organization’s commitment to market stability and a means to highlight and further understand many of the possible future challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of the oil industry. The publication is also a channel to encourage dialogue, cooperation and transparency between OPEC and others within the industry.

Saudi targets return to $75 oil price

Saudi targets return to $75 oil price

CAIRO (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Friday identified $75 a barrel as a fair price for oil, the first time in years the world's leading crude exporter has cited a price target.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said oil prices needed to return to $75 to keep the more expensive new projects at the margins of world supply on track.
"There is a good logic for $75 a barrel," said Naimi. "You know why? Because I believe $75 is the price for the marginal producer. If the world needs supply from all sources, we need to protect the price for them. I think $75 is a fair price."

Update Latest News: The OPEC Cairo meeting has ended without announcing new cuts in crude output. The next meeting is in Algiers on the 17th of December where they will try to reach an agreement on further cuts in crude output.

Short-Term Energy Outlook

The current U.S. and global economic downturn has led to a decrease in global
energy demand and a rapid and substantial reduction in crude oil and other
energy prices. As a result, projections for both energy demand and prices are
considerably lower than last month’s Outlook.

WTI (West Texas Intermediate) prices are expected to average $63.50 per barrel in 2009 (Crude Oil Prices)

Download Full Report (PDF, November 12, 2008 Release