More things to consider from hydrocarbon industry.
Shale boom is over and we are likely at the peak of what America will be producing and the economics of shale fields are getting worse since the easily tappable projects are getting dry so they have to go to secondary locations which require higher prices to drill. Not great for profitability and other stuff. So, I think the era of low oil prices is over. What this means is the control of non-US oil will be more important going forward.
So, it's good that China has now normalized relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. That's a good step forward.
What we are seeing is that China's shipborne import of Russian crude is hitting an all time high in March at 43 million barrels. When combined will pipeline oil, this will likely be a new high oil import from Russia. On the flip side, the discount is shrinking.
Also, PetroChina & Sinopec are both buying Urals, which is leading to over 11 million barrels of Ural import.
Also Indian competition is shrinking the discount on the ESPO crude imports.
the independent refiners are celebrating big time