1. International oil prices rose on Wednesday, with U.S. crude and fuel supplies tightening and Saudi Arabia’s energy minister warning speculators, raising the prospect of further OPEC+ production cuts.
2. Members of Hart Energy group said at the Super Dug conference in Fort Worth, Texas, that growth in U.S. natural gas production could stall before more liquefied natural gas export capacity comes online towards the end of this decade.
3. The Biden administration extended a waiver authorizing some oilfield service companies to keep assets in Venezuela.
4. Equinor announced that it has conducted production capacity testing on the Johan Sverdrup oil field, showing that it can produce up to 755,000 barrels of oil per day.
5. Iraq’s Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said that Iraq is waiting for Turkey’s final approval to resume exporting oil from Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region through a pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
6. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy stated that the country plans to maintain large-scale oil fields this year, with maintenance work planned for the Tengiz oil field in August and maintenance work planned for the Karachaganak oil field in October.
7. Ahead of the upcoming OPEC+ meeting, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned short-selling speculators and reminded them to be careful.
8. Data released by the API shows that U.S. crude oil and refined product inventories decreased last week. In the week ending May 19th, crude oil inventories fell by about 6.8 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell by about 6.4 million barrels, while distillate inventories fell by about 1.8 million barrels.
9. Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin said that Poland and the Czech Republic are working to phase out Russian oil from Czech refineries.
10. Industry and government sources said that the Russian government is considering a ban on gasoline exports to prevent domestic fuel shortages and price hikes. Previously, the Russian government decided to reduce subsidies to refineries.
