US Weekly Oil Review: Venezuela Deal Under Threat

The US government will not renew the sanctions relief on Venezuela unless there is progress on allowing all presidential candidates to compete in this year’s election. Matthew Miller, US State Department Spokesperson said.

• BP confirmed that power has been fully restored to its Whiting refinery in the US Midwest as expected today and operations are resuming according to Bloomberg.
• Pipeline operator Enterprise Products expects US crude production to rise by 1.8m b/d between 2023-2025, Senior VP Tony Chovanec said cited by Bloomberg.
• Exxon and Chevron plan to ramp-up production from the Permian basin in 2024, an early indicator that US output may once again exceed expectations, according to Bloomberg.
• The US largest crude refiner Marathon Petroleum expects steady year-on-year demand for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, while expecting record levels of global oil demand growth in 2024.
• USD: The greenback had some volatile swings this week. Initial weak US data and regional bank concerns weighed before being trumped by a moderately hawkish Fed, who appeared to set a high bar to a March cut, and then by much firmer-than-expected employment figures. The USD index looks set to close around 104.00, the highest level since mid-December.
• The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for the fourth straight meeting, signalling openness to cutting, but was in no rush to ease.
• Non-farm payrolls were far stronger than expected at 353k (cons 185k) and with some extremely strong historical revision.
• The S&P Global US manufacturing PMI was surprisingly revised up to 50.7 in January (flash & cons 50.3) for a larger increase from the 47.9 in December.