Top Oil News

According to the ruling of Russian government № 876 (26 November, 2008) the amount of export duty on oil will be $192.1 per ton. Duty on light oil products will be $141.8 per tonne, on dark - $76.4 dollars per tonne. This ruling will protect Russian oil exporters from the crisis in the oil market.

Earlier, the export duty on oil was $287.3 per tonne, the rate of duty on light oil products amounted to $205.9 per tonne, on dark - $110.9.

Oil prices closed at less than $47 a barrel on Tuesday as news that OPEC made only two-thirds of its pledged output cuts last month outweighed a rebound in the U.S. stock market. New York light sweet crude for January dropped $2.32 to close at $46.96, the first time the benchmark contract has settled below $47 since May 2005.

“The story about OPEC still not in full compliance with pledged output reductions is the reason why crude futures are down right now,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. “This lack of compliance is disappointing to the market and this puts into doubt OPEC’s indications that they will make more production cuts later this month.” Members of the OPEC had pledged to lower output by 1.5 million barrels per day for November, but were only 66 percent compliant with the target last month.

Oil prices have plummeted amid the global financial crisis from record highs hit on July 11: 147.27 dollars in New York contract and 147.50 dollars in London. “There is still a fear that the global economy is in deep trouble and the oil price is simply following that,” said Adam Sieminski, analyst at Deutsche Bank. Oil prices fell more than five dollars Monday after OPEC decided at a weekend meeting in Cairo against cutting production, preferring to wait until December before reducing crude exports.

Oil’s decline deepened to below $54 a barrel on Wednesday, pressured by economic weakness that will further erode the world’s demand for fuel. U.S. crude fell to $53.30 a barrel, its lowest since January 2007, and by 8:11 a.m. EST was trading 61 cents lower at $53.78. Oil has dropped by nearly two-thirds from a record above $147 a barrel in July.

London’s Brent crude was off 54 cents at $51.30. The oil market was also closely watching U.S. weekly oil data due out at 10:35 a.m. EST on Wednesday as well as any moves from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at their meeting next week. Analysts in a Reuters poll expected the U.S. oil data would show an increase of 800,000 barrels of crude stocks, and a 400,000 barrel rise in gasoline inventories. Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, were forecast to have risen 600,000 barrels.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) motor group said on Tuesday that U.S. travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday next week would decline for the first time since 2002. OPEC is very concerned about the worsening world economic slowdown, the group’s president Chakib Khelil said in remarks published in El Khabar newspaper on Wednesday. Nigerian Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said his country was not pushing for further cuts in oil output.