Chart of the Day

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019, U.S. EDITION CHART OF THE DAY

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TOP NEWS

Texas refineries cut output as petrochemical spill curbs shipping Royal Dutch Shell Plc and LyondellBasell Industries cut production on Monday at their Houston-area oil refineries because of shipping disruptions along a waterway affected by a petrochemical fire and spill, according to people familiar with the matter. A fire and fuel leak at Mitsui & Co Inc's Intercontinental Terminals Co (ITC) storage facility in Deer Park, Texas, last week sent gasoline, water and fire suppressant foam into the Houston Ship Channel, which connects Houston to the Gulf of Mexico, and is home to nine oil refineries.

FOCUS-Stalled Aramco IPO sets back deal-making at U.S. subsidiary Motiva Saudi Aramco's delayed initial public offering is sidelining grand North American expansion plans at its U.S. refining subsidiary Motiva Enterprises LLC, people familiar with the matter said, at a time when its rivals grew their market share. After dissolving a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell PLC two years ago, Motiva set out to rebuild and boost market share in the Americas. It evaluated deals for LyondellBasell Industries NV's Houston refinery, with the Caribbean government of Curacao, and considered expanding its sole U.S. oil refinery.

South Korean officials to press for Iran sanctions waiver in United States South Korean government officials are expected to press for extending a sanctions waiver on Iran's petroleum exports that expires in May on a visit to Washington this week. South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Yoon Kang-hyun and other leaders will meet with U.S. State Department officials on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the waiver issued in November to keep buying Iranian oil in exchange for having reduced such purchases, the Seoul government said in a news release on Monday.

China's ShFE launches crude oil futures index; plans more products China's Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) will start on Tuesday publishing an index linked to the prices of its crude oil futures contracts, a year after the launch of futures trading, the ShFE said in a release posted on its WeChat channel. The crude oil futures index will measure the price movements and the rate of return for the most actively traded contract for the ShFE's crude futures, according to the release.

Trading firm Trafigura sees oil price rising to $70s/bl in 2020 Global commodities trader Trafigura Group sees Brent oil staying around current levels, about $66-$67 a barrel, or slightly higher for the rest of the year, and rising to the $70s in 2020, its co-head of oil trading Ben Luckock said on Monday. "We're gently bullish. We have a more stable and almost sensible market. We traded between $50 and $87 a barrel last year. $87 was probably too much ... The Iranian oil waivers caught many people by surprise," Luckock told a briefing for journalists at the company's Geneva headquarters. March 26, 2019

Shell starts exploratory drilling for oil and gas off Bulgarian coast Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it will start drilling an exploration well in a block off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast next month for oil and gas. Shell has teamed up with Spain's Repsol and Australia's Woodside Energy after sealing a contract with Bulgaria in 2016 for deepwater exploratory drilling as part of Sofia efforts to end its almost complete reliance on Russia's natural gas supplies. It is Shell's only upstream project in Bulgaria.

COLUMN-Hedge funds increase appetite for oil: Kemp Hedge funds bought another 65 million barrels of petroleum futures and options in the week to March 19, taking total purchases over the last 10 weeks to 384 million barrels, according to reports published on Friday. The one-week increase in net long positions was the largest since the end of August 2018, a strong bullish signal about the expected direction of prices over the next six months.

Brazil govt's spat with Petrobras nears end, paving way for giant oil tender Brazil's government will announce "within days" a deal with state-run oil company Petrobras to settle a multi-billion-dollar contract dispute and clear the way to auction billions of barrels of oil off of the Brazilian coast, a minister said on Monday. Economy Minister Paulo Guedes told journalists that his team sat down recently with officials at the Mines and Energy Ministry, and that "the deal is done."

Kinder Morgan quits Enbridge, Oiltanking crude export venture Kinder Morgan Inc has dropped out of a recently proposed U.S. Gulf Coast deepwater crude export venture, the project's leader Enbridge Inc said on Monday. The $800 million project, known as Texas COLT, is one of eight similar projects proposing facilities that would move U.S. shale to overseas markets by loading supertankers able to carry up to 2 million barrels apiece.

Amazonian residents seize PetroTal's oil installations in Peru Residents of a remote Amazonian region seized a small oil installation operated by Canadian energy company PetroTal Corp to demand electricity and other government services, an industry group said on Monday. The latest protest to target oil and mining operations in Peru in recent months has sparked calls for the government of President Martin Vizcarra to take steps to prevent the incidents, which risk deterring investment in the country.

MARKETS TODAY

OIL: Oil prices climbed, pushed up by supply cuts led by producer club OPEC and U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, although concerns about a potential recession kept markets from rising further.

FOREX: The euro steadied after economic surveys showed tentative signs of a recovery in the euro zone economy but warning signs from bond markets continued to unnerve investors.

2 March 26, 2019

U.S. EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR THE DAY (ET) 0830 Building permits: number for Feb: Expected 1.300 mln; Prior 1.317 mln 0830 Housing starts number for Feb: Expected 1.213 mln; Prior 1.230 mln 0900 Caseshiller 20 mm SA for Jan: Expected 0.3 pct; Prior 0.2 pct 0900 Caseshiller 20 yy for Jan: Expected 4.0 pct; Prior 4.2 pct 1000 Consumer Confidence for Mar: Expected 132; Prior 131.4

(Inside Oil - Americas Edition is compiled by Priyanka Paul in Bengaluru) Refinitiv 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036 For questions or comments about this report, contact: commodity [email protected] Please visit: Refinitiv for more information. To subscribe to Americas Oil newsletter, click here. Privacy statement