Oil Market Volatility Driven by Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Speculation and Whiting Refinery Outage
• Rumors and speculation appear to be driving oil markets this week, adding to volatility as the world awaits a potential ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
• OPEC+ Sticks to Course, Flags March Meeting. This week’s OPEC+ ministerial meeting made no changes to the oil group’s production policy.
• BP’s Whiting Refinery Shutdown Rattles Midwest. A transformer failure caused a plant-wide power outage at BP’s Whiting refinery in Indiana, forcing the UK oil major to halt all operations.
• Saudi Aramco Mulls $10 Billion Share Sale. Bloomberg reports that Saudi Aramco is considering a secondary share offering worth up to $10 billion as early as February.
• India to See Coal Power Bonanza in 2024. India will commission an additional 13.9 GW of coal-powered generation capacity this year, marking the highest annual increase since 2019.