Oil Glut:light in the end of the tunnel

OPEC has decided not to cut output, despite record levels of crude in inventories and weak demand forecasts, with some cartel members believed to have ignored previous commitments to cut.
OPEC sees no need to change its guidance to oil exporters – even though oil prices are hovering around a six-month high of $63/bbl. At their meeting in Vienna members agreed stick to the current levels of output, despite oversupply, with OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, saying the organization is looking to foster economic recovery.
”The market is oversupplied, but we are seeing a light in the end of the tunnel. There is a slow recovery and we don’t want to send the wrong signal to the economy.”
With recent production cuts of 4.2 million barrels per day, OPEC members lost revenues totaling $400 million Al Badri says.
Some countries can’t withstand such losses and have exceeded their quotas – undermining OPEC’s authority,

North Sea Aldous Major South 1.6 bbl

Statoil ASA , together with partners Petoro AS, Det norske oljeselskap ASA and Lundin Norway AS, has confirmed significant additional volumes in its appraisal well in the Aldous Major South discovery (PL265) in the North Sea.
The results of appraisal well 16/2-10 have increased production license PL265 estimates to between 900 million and 1.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.
This is a doubling of the previously announced PL265 volumes of between 400 and 800 million barrels of oil equivalent.
It has previously been confirmed that there is communication between Aldous in PL265 and Avaldsnes in PL501, and that this is one large oil discovery.
“Aldous/Avaldsnes is a giant, and one of the largest finds ever on the Norwegian continental shelf. Volume estimates have now increased further because the appraisal well confirms a continuous, very good and thick reservoir in Aldous Major South,

New world oil map

The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle East but on the Western Hemisphere. The new energy axis runs from Alberta, Canada, down through North Dakota and South Texas, past a major new discovery off the coast of French Guyana to huge offshore oil deposits found near Brazil. The new hemispheric outlook is based on resources that were not seriously in play until recent years — all of them made possible by technological breakthroughs and advances. They are “oil sands” in Canada, “pre-salt” deposits in Brazil and “tight oil” in the United States.
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The Zaedyus well is being drilled in the Guyane Maritime licence using the ENSCO 8503 deepwater semi submersible. The well was drilled in water depths of 2,048 metres and has been drilled to a depth of 5,711 metres. Drilling operations will now continue and the well will be deepened to over 6,000 metres to calibrate the deeper geology. The well will then likely be sidetracked to enable cores to be obtained over the reservoir sections.

Tullow (27.5%) operates the Guyane Maritime license and is partnered by Shell (45%), Total (25%) and Northpet (2.5%), a company owned 50% by Northern Petroleum and 50% by Wessex Exploration.
Tullow was citing six additional prospects off French Guiana with a similar make-up to Zaedyus suggested major potential in the coastal area extending from
Guyana through offshore Suriname and French Guiana and into
northeast Brazil's maritime area.
"It's a potential game-changer -- in the sense of the size,
that you have an area with such immense prospects," here

Commodity prices: oil vs. wine

Emerging economies have accounted for more than 100% of the increase in global oil demand since 2000, while oil consumption in rich countries has declined. Likewise, rising incomes in emerging economies have spurred wine drinking, whereas consumption in Europe, notably France and Italy, has fallen. China (including Hong Kong) overtook Britain last year as the biggest export market for Bordeaux wines. So for both wine and oil, emerging economies now account for the bulk of incremental changes in demand and therefore have the biggest influence on prices.

Not only are emerging economies growing faster, but their growth is more energy intensive. Likewise, an increase in income seems to lead to a bigger rise in wine demand in these economies than in the rich world, and so gives a bigger boost to prices.