- Oil heads for a weekly loss as concerns of Fed tightening policy persist
- April ’23 WTI lost 36c this morning to trade around $76/Bbl
- Crude is down 4.5%, or $3.60, this week as concerns of steep interest rate hikes outweigh optimism about China’s recovery
- Fed Chair Powell said this week that the central bank might hike rates faster than expected, but a decision hadn’t yet been taken for the March meeting
- The U.S. February non-farm payroll data on Friday showed that the unemployment rate and payroll growth exceeded expectations
- Also weighing on prices this week was a strong U.S. dollar that surged to a three-month high before weakening on Friday
- OPEC+ oil production fell by 0.080 MBbl/d In February despite an uptick in Russia (SPGlobal)
- Overall production fell due to declines in Angola, Iraq, and Kazakhstan, even though Russian oil production, which is still resilient, grew marginally
- The Platts survey showed that Russian oil production rose by 0.010 MMBbl/d to 9.86 MMBbl/d in February
- But, Russia has stated that it will lower its oil production by 0.500 MMBbl/d in March in retaliation to Western sanctions, which could have an impact on the volume of its oil and gasoline exports
- Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed to continue close coordination in the group's oil policy during a visit by Saudi Arabia's foreign minister to Moscow on Thursday