- Crude oil prices are volatile after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt break diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the country of backing terrorism activities; U.S. crude -0.9% at $47.23/bbl, Brent -1% at $49.44 and natural gas -0.2% at $2.99.
- Market participants will be watching to see if OPEC member Qatar attempts to disrupt the oil production deal, but the country is not a major oil producer, accounting for ~2% of OPEC’s output and shipping 618K bbl/day in April.
- However, Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, last year shipping 77.2M tons of LNG, equivalent to one-third of global supply, and only Russia and Iran have more proven gas reserves.
- The dispute has not caused a direct impact on the regional energy sector so far; gas supplies reportedly are continuing from Qatar through the 3.2B cf/day Dolphin pipeline, a joint venture uniting UAE state-run Mubadala, Total (NYSE:TOT) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY).
- ETFs: USO, UNG, OIL, UGAZ, UCO, DGAZ, SCO, BNO, BOIL, DBO, GAZ, DTO, USL, KOLD, UNL, DNO, OLO, SZO, DCNG, OLEM
- Now read: Marketplace Roundtable: Running Of The Bulls With Elazar Advisors, LLC
Original article