Page 13 - ITAtube Journal 1 2023

Market information
oil production almost linear from 11 Mio. Bbl./day in February 2022 to 12,4 Mio. Bbl./ day in February 2023 (+13%) by increasing the number of drilling rigs. The number of drilling rigs was enlarged from 531 in May 2021 to about 800 end of November 2022 (Figure 12).
Of these 800 rigs, 637 are dedicated for the extraction of oil and 163 for gas. The growth pattern has slightly calmed down, anyhow demand stays on high level.
The oil producing countries should com- pensate the anticipated reduced Russian Oil production in a range of 1-2 Mio. Bbl./ day (Figure 13).
Since June 2022 anyhow, the market calmed down and the oil price stabilized since September 2022 at a price span of about 75 to 85 USD/Bbl. Only this month the price weakened again.
Although OPEC-Plus controls only less
than 50% of the total world oil production volume, the oil price is greatly triggered
by the OPEC-Plus oil production volumes. In September 2022 OPEC-Plus reduced its production volumes (from 38,7 to 38 Mio. Bbl./day) (Figure 14), with the consequence that the oil price stabilized. Anyhow when in January 2023 the production volume
was enlarged to 38,3 Mio. Bbl./day, the oil price weakened immediately. Now in March 2023 the OPEC-Plus, mainly Saudi Arabia, decided, due to further weakening oil prices below 70 USD/Bbl., to reduce its oil production by about 0,7 Mio. Bbl./day to a total of 37,6 Mio. Bbl./day. So far, the effect of this last reduction of production volume did not show the expected strengthening of the oil price.
This reducing of the crude oil production is heavily criticised by the US and EU officials, as they fear that inflation and industrial growth will be negatively affected by raising oil prices.
The energy industry is booming, Aramco, the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels, has become the world’s most valuable company in 2022. Exxon Mobile even
ITAtube Journal May 2023
Figure 12: US Total Rig Count 4 years up to 14th of April 2023 Source: OilPrice.com
Figure 13: Russia crude Oil production before and after Invasion of Ukraine Source: Rystad Energy research and analysis
Figure 14: OPEC-Plus Crude Oil Production (Bbl./day) Source: Energy Intelligence
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