April 2019 - Portland Fuel

Monthly Pricing - 01/04/2019

Brent Crude continued 2019’s upward trend in March, rising over 3% across the month as a result of tightening OPEC supply and a slowdown in US shale growth.

The GBP/USD currency pair showed extreme volatility on continually mixed Brexit headlines in March, hitting a low of 1.2967 and a nine-month high of 1.3339.

OPEC+ met in Baku, Azerbaijan on the 17th and 18th March and unanimously agreed to increase compliance with current agreed production cuts, currently at 90%.

Price Drivers

Supply Libya have re-opened 315kbpd El Sharara oil field. UK Oil & Gas production up 20% year-on-year in 2019.

Demand China have reduced growth forecast for 2019 by 0.5%. Chinese crude throughput hit record high of 12.7mbpd.

Geo-Political US have cancelled all Venezuelan crude imports. UK parliament rejected all Brexit proposals in March.