Archives of “April 2020” month
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Goldman Sachs are unimpressed by the oil output cut deal – “insufficient”
GS say the OPEC+ G20 production cut is too little too late, and the bank sees downside risk to its $20/barrel price forecast
- “Today’s agreement leaves the voluntary cuts as still too little and too late to avoid breaching storage capacity, ensuring that low oil prices force all producers to contribute to the market rebalancing”
- no voluntary cuts could be large enough to offset the 19m b/d average April-May demand loss due to the coronavirus
- OPEC+ voluntary cut is an only actual 4.3m b/d reduction in production from 1Q 2020 levels
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Oil traded higher initially upon market reopen for the week, gave it all back and turned negative and is now not much changed from late last week levels.
OPEC+ draft statement says expected total oil output cuts of more than 20m bpd
OPEC+ draft statement says the expected total global oil production cuts are effective from May 1 will amount to over 20 million barrels per day
That 20m bpd figure is the effective total cut between OPEC plus and the G20 along with buying from the IEA.
More:
- Cuts begin in May
- for two months
- diminish in size after
- expiring in April 2022
Here are the main points so far of the OPEC+ agreement to cut oil output (and the 3 things they missed)
OPEC+ and the G20 have agreed to cut oil production by just under 10 million barrels / day.
Oil trading begins for the week at 2200GMT with Sunday evening trade on CME,
ICYMI … :
- a cut of circa 9.7 million barrels a day of oil across OPEC+ and the G20
- 13-nation OPEC and others (Russia, US are two) agreed to share cuts
Its unclear how the cuts are to be apportioned, and how the US intends to enforce its promised cuts, but indications are (its is very unclear, but these from sources, awaiting confirmation):
- Mexico cut 100,000 barrels a day
- US by 300,000 barrels / day
- Saudi Arabia’s production to be reduced to 8.5m bpd (from the current whopping 12 million bpd)
When oil trade reopens for the week we’ll see how successful the agreement is, so far, at limiting further price falls for oil.
The important factors that the supply cut does not, is not able, to address is of course is the demand side of the equation. Demand is lower due to:
- social distancing lock downs of economies
- the further, recessionary economic impact of these measures (the impacts will linger)
Back to the supply side to finish up, there is a huge overhang of oil in storage.

Coronavirus – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is out of hospital!
Great news over the weekend with UK PM Johnson discharged from hospital
He had spent a week in hospital, in intensive care for three days with COVID-19.
Johnson posted a video message on Twitter (he is at @BorisJohnson)
He looks a little haggard, fair enough, but sounds ready to get back into the job.
Johnson’s ill-health was a small niggle for GBP, despite a political system in the UK that would absorb and carry on in the face of such a disruption. That’s been removed now.
Welcome back BoJo!

Thought For A Day
A card game that simulates trading:
Face cards = lose whatever you bet Joker = lose 5x your bet
2 = double whatever you bet
3 = triple your bet, etc…
When shuffled, the entire system is profitable, but with only 36% winning trades, if you bet too much, you will go bankrupt.