Commodities Update — gold inches lower, wheat up on supply worries, copper soars

RIYADH: Oil futures extended gains on Tuesday as the US and Europe planned new sanctions to punish Moscow over alleged war crimes by Russian troops in Ukraine, adding to concerns about supply disruptions, while Iran nuclear talks stalled.

Brent crude futures rose $1.20, or 1.1 percent, to $108.73 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.25, or 1.2 percent, at $104.53 a barrel at 0420 GMT.

Both contracts briefly jumped more than $2 a barrel in early Asian trade after Japanese Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda said the International Energy Agency was still working out details for a planned second round of coordinated oil releases.

German regulator takes over Gazprom Germania

Gazprom Germania, an energy trading, storage and transmission business ditched by Russia’s Gazprom on Friday, will be transferred to Germany’s regulator to ensure energy security, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday.

All voting rights in the company will be moved to the regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, Habeck told a news conference. The move was immediately put into effect by publication in the Federal Gazette.

“The order of the trust administration serves to protect public security and order and to maintain the security of supply,” Habeck said.

“This step is mandatory,” he added.

Russia’s March oil output down to 11.01mn bpd

Russian output of oil and gas condensate fell to 11.01 million barrels per day, or bpd, in March from 11.06 million bpd in February, according to Reuters calculations based on an Interfax report on Monday that cited an unnamed source.

A Russian analytical unit affiliated with the Energy Ministry did not publish monthly oil and gas output data on April 2, according to two clients, the first delay in years amid reports of a production decline.

Russia’s oil and gas condensate production was 46.57 million tons in March, Interfax news agency said, compared with 42.23 million tons in February, which was three days shorter.

Reports of lower production in March, though minor, come as exporters experience difficulties in placing some barrels amid Western sanctions over Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

On Friday, sources said that on March 31, the oil output was down to 10.6 million bpd, the lowest daily level since September 2021. It was not immediately clear whether the reduction was a one-off factor or a sign of a more prolonged decline.

Gas leak in Alaska oil field

More than 7.2 million cubic feet of natural gas escaped in a leak at a key Alaska oil field, forcing workers to evacuate and cutting production last month, operator ConocoPhillips and a state regulatory agency said.

ConocoPhillips is working to seal off the leak at its Alpine field, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission said in a report, as it determined the gas volume lost in the leak discovered a month ago that brought a cut in oil output.

Overall daily Alpine production fell to a low of 36,851 barrels on March 13 from 51,700 on March 1 before the discovery, the state’s revenue department said, though latest figures show output has since recovered to more than 50,000 bpd.

As site remediation work continues, Conoco said it was placing cement in multiple steps to isolate the shallow geologic formation identified as the source of the gas. Then it will plug the source, the company said on its incident website.

Exxon signals record quarterly profit

Exxon Mobil Corp. on Monday said its first-quarter results could top a seven-year quarterly record, with operating profits from pumping oil and gas alone of up to $9.3 billion.

A snapshot of the largest US oil company’s quarter ended March 31 showed operating profits from oil and gas, its biggest unit, could jump by as much as $2.7 billion over the prior quarter’s $6.6 billion.

Exxon to invest $10bn in Guyana offshore oil project

Meanwhile, Exxon has also decided to invest $10 billion in a fourth oil production project off the coast of Guyana, the largest in the South American country.

Guyana is one of Exxon’s top bets for future production growth, with as much as 1.2 million bpd of oil and gas expected to be produced by 2027.

Exxon and partners Hess Corp. and CNOOC Ltd. Consortium started production in Guyana in 2019 and are responsible for all output in the country. They have discovered more than 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Exxon’s Yellowtail development in the Stabroek block is expected to produce about 250,000 bpd starting in 2025. The $10-billion project is one of up to ten that the companies plan to install in Guyana.

(With inputs from Reuters)