- Oil prices were trading flat Wednesday morning after a two-day rally fueled by easing concerns about the new Omicron variant
- Industry data from the API showed that crude inventories rose by 2.4 MMBbl last week – the biggest increase since February
- U.S. oil drillers will need half a decade to resume pre-pandemic production levels, according to Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources
- Saudi Arabia based International Energy Forum said companies need to raise investment in oil and natural gas production to $523 billion a year by the end of this decade to prevent a surge in energy prices (Bloomberg)
- The IEF said spending on oil and gas projects slumped 30% to $309 billion in 2020 and had only slightly recovered this year
- The consultancy's comments are in line with those of Saudi Aramco, whose CEO on Monday said there could be ‘chaos’ unless governments stopped shunning investment in fossil fuels