To: Goose94 who wrote (20797 ) 8/2/2016 3:25:17 PM From: Goose94 Read Replies (1) | Respond to Crude oil: Speculators grow more pessimistic. Hedge funds and money managers increased their short bets on crude oil, and sold off their long positions. In fact, hedge funds increased their short bets for the week ending on July 26 by the most ever. “The flow is solidly bearish,” Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective, told Bloomberg. “It reflects a recognition that the market is, at least for the time being, oversupplied.” John Kilduff, founding partner of Again Capital, says oil is going to $35. Iran expected to approve oil contract. Iran is set to approve a new oil contract design on Wednesday, an overhaul meant to attract billions of dollars in international investment. “We are awaiting government approval due to be out on Wednesday,” Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said at an energy conference in Tehran on Monday. “Our priorities will be jointly owned oil and gas fields, as well as those in which we are after improved oil recovery.” Iran has managed to boost oil production from 2.8 million barrels per day in January when sanctions were lifted up to about 3.5 mb/d today. The next steps are to bring in international firms with capital and technical expertise. But that required tweaking some contract terms. It remains to be seen whether or not the reforms will do the trick. Libya moving to bring back 600,000 barrels per day. Libya’s National Oil Corporation announced that it would try to resume oil exports from a handful of critical export terminals on its coast, supporting a fragile deal between the unity government and the guards that effectively operate the ports and have kept them shut for a year and a half. The NOC says that it hopes to ramp up production to 900,000 barrels per day by the end of the year from the 300,000 barrels per day currently. It is not at all clear that such a lofty goal can be achieved in that timeframe, but new Libyan production would add to the woes for global oil markets. Shale drillers won’t return until $60. Bloomberg reports that despite the nascent rebound in the rig count, many top shale drillers won’t return to the shale patch in a big way until oil prices rise to $60 per barrel. That is a safer price zone than the $50 per barrel that many had signaled they would be willing to live with.
