- WTI is up $1.10 to $19.94/Bbl, and Brent is up 5c to $26.53/Bbl
- Oil prices are on track for its first weekly gain in a month
- OPEC+’s 10 MMBbl/d supply reductions begin Friday
- The market has also been buoyed by other major producer announcements that their oil output will fall
- ConocoPhillips said it would voluntarily curtail production by 420 MBbl/d in June. The bulk of the curtailments will be in the Lower 48
- Chevron expects May and June oil production to be down by 200 MBbl/d to 300 Mbbl/d. Chevron down to five rigs in the Permian
- Exxon sees 400 BOE/D of shut-ins and curtailments in 2Q
- The U.S. Federal Reserve made changes on Thursday to its $600 billion “Main Street” lending program that will make it easier for oil and gas companies to qualify for low-interest loans (Argus)
- Companies borrowing will now be able to use taxpayer-backed loans to pay off existing debt
- The Fed also raised the maximum loan size to $200 million, up from $150 million, and relaxed restrictions on the debt levels of borrowers
- Companies that qualify under the revised lending facility will be able to borrow such that their debt load can reach up to six times their adjusted earnings in 2019
- Natural gas is down 2.8c to $1.921/MMBtu
- Growth in global LNG projects is expected to fall from a previously expected 17 Bcf/d to 8.5 Bcf/d between 2020 and 2021
- Woodside (Australia) is said to be delaying their Final Investment Decision on developing the Scarborough gas field, which is meant to underpin the 0.65 Bcf/d expansion of the Pluto export terminal
- Novatek is also delaying their Final Investment Decision on the 0.65 Bcf/d Obsky LNG export terminal
- FERC grants in-service approval for Freeport LNG Train 3
- Freeport had requested approval on April 23rd
- The LNG export terminal at Quintana Island in Freeport, Texas will have an expected capacity of 15 Mtpa (1.965 Bcf/d) with all three trains online
- On Thursday, the EIA announced an injection of 70 Bcf for the week ending April 24
- This injection was significantly larger than the 43-Bcf build reported a week earlier
- Storage now stands 55%, or 783 Bcf, above last year’s levels of 1.427 Tcf
