Energy and commodities highlights: Oil diplomacy, global LNG flows, trade wars

In a week dominated by geopolitical headlines, oil diplomacy was also high on the agenda.

Despite a schedule that included a high-profile summit in Hanoi, US President Donald Trump found time to tweet his view of crude prices to OPEC, ahead of a meeting between US and Saudi officials.

OPEC’s next regular biannual meeting will take place June 25-26 in Vienna.

Meanwhilethe so-called NOPEC bill is starting its path through the US legislative process, even as the country’s energy secretary Rick Perry warned it threatened an oil price spike.

IMO 2020

A shift to low sulfur marine fuel is imminent under new rules starting on January 1, 2020. S&P Global Platts editors discuss the implications across the shipping sector.

GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK

LNG trade flows in 2018 shifted from demand pull into Asia to supply push into Europe. In 2019 surging US supply is likely to accentuate that shift into Europe, due to a weaker JKM outlook, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics.

These visualizations were presented by S&P Global Platts during an LNG panel at the London Oil and Energy Forum 2019

TRADE WARS

US extends China trade tariff deadline

The US is pushing back its deadline to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, a move likely to boost crude oil and LNG trade flows, especially if trade tensions ease in the longer term.

US wants to drop metals tariffs on Canada, Mexico but resolution unclear: Lighthizer

The US "very much" wants to come to an agreement with Canada and Mexico regarding alternate arrangements to the US Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, however, whether such an agreement will be reached remains unclear, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.

METALS

Chile's SQM to hold back lithium production as global supply grows

As EV growth propels demand for battery metals, Chilean SQM, the self-described largest lithium producer in the world, shed light on its view of the lithium market in 2019.

OIL PRODUCTS

Analysis: New PDH plants to drive China's LPG demand, trade war a concern

New propane dehydrogenation, or PDH plants, will drive China's appetite for LPG in 2019, but the rate of demand growth will be slower than previous years because of the US-China trade war and the rising use of natural gas by the residential sector.

THE LAST WORD

“There is a need today for us to supply the energy the world needs. There are different needs for different people and that's what we need to explain as an industry,” said Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco CEO, at the IP Week conference in London.

Nasser said the industry faced a "crisis of perception" and urged his audience to "push back on exaggerated theories like peak oil demand," referring to the view that oil consumption could peak as soon as the next decade.