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Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash has been shipped from Russia to Venezuela, providing a lifeline to the South American country as U.S. sanctions limit its access to the global financial system. A total of $315 million of U.S. dollar and euro notes were sent in six separate shipments from Moscow to Caracas from May 2018 to April 2019, according to data reviewed by Bloomberg from ImportGenius, which compiled Russian customs records it obtains through private sources. ...As a consequence of the scrutiny, the central bank is conducting more transactions in cash, sometimes offering local clients access to euro...

Global energy demand could slump by 6% in 2020 due to the restrictions placed on homes and industry in what would be the largest contraction in absolute terms on record, according to Paris-based IEA, which advises industrialised nations on energy. The slump would lead to a drop in carbon dioxide emissions of 8%, six times larger than the biggest fall of 400 million tonnes recorded in 2009 following the global financial crisis, according to the IEA, which described its estimate as conservative. ... Carbon intensive coal demand has so far been hit the hardest by the pandemic, with demand in...

Iraq’s revenues plummeted in April amid a historic oil price crash, the Oil Ministry said Friday, raising concerns over how the country will cope with severe financial shortfalls while struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The crude-dependent economy earned just $1.4 billion in oil revenues last month, at an average price of $13.8 per barrel, according to data released by the ministry, a sixth of average figures from before the oil price crash... The figures provide the first tangible indication of the desperate circumstances facing Iraq as officials struggle to determine how to implement austerity measures — expected to be...

The Federal Reserve made some changes to its Main Street Lending Program according to a Thursday press release by the central bank that will now extend a much-needed lifeline to the U.S. oil industry. As bankruptcies, capex cuts, and unfavorable financial reports from Q1 start to trickle into the US shale patch, more oil companies in peril will now be able to tap the Main Street fund that was set up to render aid to small and medium sized businesses. Prior to today, those funds were not available to companies who had more than 10,000 employees and $2.5 billion in...

Oil prices surged for a third straight day Thursday amid evidence that fuel demand is starting to return, compounding the benefit from production cuts by the world’s largest producers starting on May 1. West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, was trading up 17 percent at $17.65 per barrel while Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, was higher by 13 percent at $25.43 per barrel. The energy components fell 75 percent and 65 percent, respectively, this year through Wednesday.

WASHINGTON/LONDON/DUBAI - As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that...

Oil prices moving downwards today with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate at 12.58 a barrel.... Two motorcyle officers rammed by a car driving in the wrong direction in a Paris suburb today.... The Syrian government says that three civilians were killed and four wounded in an early morning Israeli airstrike on the Damascus area..... The US military denying a Syrian Arab News Agency Report that two American soldiers are missing...... Fighting reported in Syria between members of the HTS Al Qaeda forces and Turkish soldiers in the Greater Idlib region.... The United States military killed and injured civilians in...

Dozens of oil tankers anchor off the Californian coast near Los Angeles and Long Beach as the reduced demand for oil takes hold. The tankers are acting as storage tanks for oil as demand has reduced throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

As oil prices have plummeted to levels never before seen, a rift has opened among the companies that extract crude. Some of them say state regulators should force producers to pump less in the hopes such regulation will raise prices. Others say no, just let the market do its job. While Texas, an oil-producing behemoth, is weighing the controversial idea of imposing limits, New Mexico, now an oil powerhouse in its own right, has largely stayed out of that debate. Depending where oil prices go and what other states decide to do, there may come a point when the state...

Here's a pretty dramatic shot of a whooole lotta oil parked off the coast of Southern California.

More than 25 oil tankers are currently floating off the Southern California coastline as the demand for oil plummets. The U.S. Coast Guard filmed video that shows 27 tankers anchored in waters just off the coast by the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach as of Thursday afternoon. Stay-at-home orders across the country have led to a dramatic reduction in the demand for crude oil and now the tankers have no place to deliver the product and instead have become floating storage tanks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. shale producers, refiners and pipeline companies are scrambling for cash and face likely restructuring as they struggle under heavy debt loads while engulfed in the worst crisis the oil industry has faced. SNIP About half of the top 60 independent U.S. oil producers are in danger of restructuring and will need to find ways to boost their cash pile, according to energy lawyers at Haynes and Boone. SNIP Demand, however, is down by roughly 25% in the United States, and oversupply is expected to linger for months. An April survey of energy producers by the...

By now even the 165,727 "professional investors" who are long the USO ETF on the free, glitch-prone platform Robin Hood, are aware that the problem facing global oil production is that there is simply no storage where to put all the physical oil (as we warned in late March).And if even the army of Robinhood-ers now know how impossible it is to find space for physical oil on the continental US, then Saudi Arabia - which sparked the current crude crisis and which will not stop until shale is completely crushed - is certainly aware.Which is why with the US unable to store...

An overhwelming vote in the House today to approve the spending of 484 billion dollars related to the coronavirus with most of it going into what's called a "paycheck protection program" for small businesses.... Five no votes on the legislation four of them Republicans Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Jody Hice of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also voting no. Republican Justin Amash of Michigan voting present... The French Interior minister prefers to call the violence in Paris suburbs in recent days "sporadic tensions" not "riots"..... More developments from Idaho where mother Sara...

Thought you might like this explanation of negative oil prices... The below analogy of the oil crash put on simple terms for those of you not understanding negative oil prices Why WTI traded at -$40... Imagine the following...you pay $500 today and commit to receiving an escort at your house in fifteen days, because your girlfriend will then be traveling... Unfortunately, quarantine came and your girlfriend will be home for the next 3 months... Like all girlfriends from all over the world... You do not want this woman to show up at your house at all and try to pass...

Hackers are trying to infect organizations throughout the world with a popular strain of malware by sending emails that appear to be from an Egyptian oil company. In research published Tuesday, Romanian antivirus company BitDefender noted a surge in attempted phishing attacks that try to trick users into downloading malware by masquerading as Enppi, an oil company owned by the Egyptian government. The malware, known as Agent Tesla, is a spyware tool which enables hackers to monitor keystrokes, steal data about file downloads and collect username and password credentials from internet browsers, among other capabilities. The number of attacks spiked...

The collapse of the price of a barrel of oil this week was something to see. It was cheaper for producers to pay people to take it away than it was to store it themselves, as capacity had been reached. They were offering almost $40 per barrel to take the oil. Made me wish I had an Olympic sized swimming pool I could fill up for a rainy day. While people watched dumbfounded at how this could happen, people working in the energy industry were terrified - what would this mean for the jobs, millions of them? The answer isn’t...

An Australian frigate has joined three U.S. warships in the South China Sea near an area where a Chinese vessel is suspected to be exploring for oil, near waters also claimed by Vietnam and Malaysia, officials said on April 22. The warships arrived this week close to where the Chinese government survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 has been operating, which is in turn near where a vessel operated by Malaysia’s Petronas state oil company is conducting exploratory drilling, regional security sources have said. The United States has accused China of pushing its presence in the South China Sea while other...

In a post oil era, Mohammed bin Salman would lose his power of patronage but the collapse of Saudi economy is bad news for the regionSaudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) can no longer plead youth or inexperience. That time has passed. What you see is what you get. The misrule, blunders and war associated with him as crown prince will only continue with him as king. The full repertoire of the crown prince's statecraft was on display in a stormy telephone call he made to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of an Opec meeting last...

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that the oil hedging program the finance ministry put in place to protect government oil revenues from falling crude prices would yield 150 billion pesos ($6.11 billion). The program is expected to compensate for lost revenues after the price for Mexico’s main Maya crude export dropped to historic lows as the novel coronavirus and the fallout between oil powerhouses Russia and Saudi Arabia roils markets. “This coverage gives us around 150 billion pesos,” Lopez Obrador said. “That is, it compensates for income lost because of the oil price drop.” Lopez Obrador...