VIENNA (Reuters) – It is no exaggeration to say the impact of the pending U.S. and European sanctions against Iran are one of the most taboo subjects at an OPEC meeting in years.

A visitor from Mars could well walk away from the day to day events in Vienna under the impression that the impending U.S. and European sanctions regimes has nothing to do with Iranian oil exports.

NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) – Traders who have bet on a
narrowing of the spread between Brent and West Texas
Intermediate crude oil futures are nearing a moment of truth.

Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Midwest are at an all-time
high. Ditto for inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery
point for WTI futures.

CARACAS, June 4 (Reuters) – Hugo Chavez’s picture is
everywhere in Venezuela and may remain ubiquitous for some time,
despite the president’s serious illness. But soon the image may
only be a Mao-like symbol of regime continuity.

Chavismo, Hugo Chavez’s unique and malleable blend of
militarism, historical revisionism, command economics, and
knee-jerk anti-Americanism, is a movement intimately tied to the
leader and his almost messianic bond with Venezuela’s poor.

CARACAS (Reuters) – If oil was a good bet at $110 a barrel, why are crude’s cheerleaders not calling on investors to load up on Brent now that it is in the bargain bin?

Of course, the current macroeconomic situation doesn’t look nearly so supportive for crude as before. But it is not as if the current mess in Europe and the slowing pace of Chinese growth should be coming as a surprise.

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) – Oil bulls battered by a recent
slump in crude prices can take heart in at least one fact:
Japanese utilities are still buying sweet crude heavily,
propping up Asian oil prices even as Western benchmarks stumble.

Japanese utilities have been forced to crank up their use of
oil and natural gas to generate power, as a moratorium on the
restart of nuclear power plants drags on.

NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) – The following may be taken as
heresy by oil perma-bulls but let’s get it out in the open: it’s
time to scrap, or at the very least rigorously question, the
assumption that Mexican oil production will dramatically fall
sometime this decade.

A predicted sharp fall in Mexican oil output has long
underpinned part of one of the bullish theses behind strong oil
prices: non-OPEC crude oil output is weak and getting weaker.

NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) – This week’s U.S. government oil
inventory data have placed a tempting morsel on the trigger of a
big bull trap in the gasoline market. It should be sprung
shortly.

Persistent declines in U.S. gasoline inventories have
finally eroded the year-on-year surplus in stocks, pushing
supplies to a 1.6 million barrel deficit when compared to the
same week in 2011.

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) – U.S. natural gas drillers, stung
by decade-low gas prices, have flooded into so-called
liquids-rich plays, but the surge in natural gas liquids (NGLs)
output that was meant to salvage profitability is leading to a
new glut.

Big shale gas drillers, including Chesapeake Energy
and EnCana, have pivoted away from “dry” shale gas
plays like the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana, in favor of
shales that hold liquids as well as natural gas, such as Texas’
Eagle Ford Shale.

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) – Consider the following, as yet
hypothetical, situation. The United States’ No. 2 natural gas
producer is forced into a radical shift in corporate strategy,
leading to a sharp reduction in the wells it drills.

Imagine the impact this shift might have on the natural gas
market. The cause of today’s decade-low gas prices is
over-enthusiastic drilling by many gas producers.

NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) – U.S. gasoline traders are
bracing for higher imports from Europe as a slump in European
benchmark prices has re-opened the door to arbitrage shipments
to the New York Harbor.

European cash gasoline prices spiked in late March as heavy
regional refinery maintenance cut into supplies, sending cash
Eurobob gasoline blendstock prices in the
Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub above New York Harbor cash RBOB
gasoline prices.