Iran’s crude shipments have risen by more than 600,000 barrels a day this month, adding to the pressure facing producer nations as they prepare to meet in Doha to discuss freezing output to prop up oil prices.
Tankers carrying about 28.8 million barrels of crude, or more than 2 million a day, left the Persian Gulf country’s ports in the first 14 days of April, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a rate of about 1.45 million barrels a day in March.
Global oil markets will “move close to balance” in the second half of the year as lower prices take their toll on production outside OPEC, the International Energy Agency said.
The world surplus will diminish to 200,000 barrels a day in the last six months of the year from 1.5 million in the first half, the agency said in a report on Thursday. Production outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will decline by the most since 1992 as the U.S. shale oil boom falters. The glut is also being tempered as Iran restores exports only gradually with financial barriers to sales persisting even after the lifting of international sanctions.
PZ Cussons Plc said it is paying as much as 70 percent more than the official rate for dollars in Nigeria as central-bank trading restrictions reduce availability of foreign currency in Africa’s biggest economy.
“Whilst the official naira exchange rate continues to be stable, a lack of availability at that rate is resulting in the majority of dollars being purchased at a premium of 50-70 percent,” the Manchester-based maker of Imperial Leather soap said in a trading update on Thursday. “The resultant cost impact is being managed through changes to relative pricing in an environment where trading conditions remain challenging. The situation in Nigeria remains extremely fluid.”
While oil revenue and exports in Africa’s biggest crude producer have plummeted since 2014, central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele and President Muhammadu Buhari have refused to let the naira weaken. They have pegged it since March 2015 at 197-199 against the dollar through currency-trading and import restrictions that have deterred foreign investment and made it tough for manufacturers to buy inputs from abroad. The black market rate has fallen to 320, around the level PZ Cussons implies it is buying dollars.
Listed companies in Nigeria still try and source foreign-exchange from their banks at the official rate, even though it’s becoming harder. Unilever Plc, which like PZ Cussons has a subsidiary trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, said last month it would be“very insane” for the country to persist with the currency policies.
Nestle SA said its local unit has had to widen the number of banks it uses so that it can access enough foreign exchange. Last year, it was waiting as long as six weeks to be allocated dollars, according to Renaissance Capital Ltd. analysts.
PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc’s shares have fallen 8.6 percent to 23.50 naira this year. The country’s All Share Index has dropped 14 percent, the fifth-most globally among 93 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
Nigerian foreign-exchange controls are undermining political reforms by President Muhammadu Buhari and making the country “uninvestable” for buyers who measure returns in dollars, Exotix Partners LLP said.
The reorganization of the state oil company’s structure, changes to the country’s bureaucracy and Buhari’s efforts to curb corruption all point to “root and branch” changes to the country’s governance structures, Hasnain Malik, head of frontier markets strategy at London-based Exotix, said in an interview in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
OPEC said it may deepen cuts to its forecast for global oil demand growth due to slowing economic expansion in emerging markets, warmer weather and the removal of fuel subsidies.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries trimmed estimates for demand growth in 2016 by 50,000 barrels a day because of a slowdown in Latin America, projecting worldwide growth of 1.2 million barrels a day. Weakness in Brazil’s economy, the removal of fuel subsidies in the Middle East and milder winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere could prompt further cutbacks, the group said.
Eleven of OPEC’s 13 members are confirmed to attend talks in Doha this weekend to reach a deal on freezing oil production at January levels, and the group’s data show they’ve been sticking to that limit -- even if they didn’t plan to. March production from those 11 countries -- which exclude Libya and Iran -- was 487,000 barrels a day below January output, mostly because of disruptions in Iraq and Nigeria. That means if the accord is ratified on April 17, a freeze would technically allow for more OPEC oil to hit the market.
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the biggest U.S. bank by assets, reported a 6.7 percent drop in quarterly profit as costs to cover possible sour loans to troubled shale oil companies rose and revenue from trading and investment banking declined.However, both earnings per share and revenue beat analysts' lowered expectations.
The bank's net income fell to $5.52 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, from $5.91 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings fell to $1.35 from $1.45.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.26 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.(bit.ly/1S9NNDF)
Nigeria’s inflation rate climbed to the highest in almost four years in March, adding pressure on the central bank to ease foreign-exchange controls that are pushing up food and fuel prices.
Inflation in Africa’s largest economy and oil producer accelerated to 12.8 percent on an annualized basis, the highest since July 2012, from 11.4 percent in February, the Abuja-based National Bureau of Statistics said by e-mail on Tuesday. Food prices rose 12.7 percent in March from a year ago, compared with 11.4 percent in the previous month, driven up by transportation costs, the planting season and foreign-exchange movements, the statistics agency said.
