RIYADH: Oil rebounded on Thursday after the previous day’s plunge, as data showed a jump in refinery runs at the world’s top crude importer China, though a weak economic backdrop capped gains.
Brent crude futures rose $1.01, or 1.38 percent, to $74.21 a barrel by 02:11 p.m. Saudi time. US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 92 cents, or 1.35 percent, at $69.19 a barrel.
Both benchmarks fell 1.5 percent on Wednesday after the US Federal Reserve projected the need for more rate hikes this year, triggering fears that a higher interest rate environment would slow the economy and lower oil demand.
In May, China’s oil refinery throughput rose 15.4 percent from a year earlier, data showed on Thursday, hitting its second-highest total on record.
The higher throughput came as refiners returned units online from planned maintenance and independent refiners processed cheap imports.
But a weak economic outlook capped price gains on Thursday, as China’s industrial output and retail sales growth in May missed forecasts.
China’s industrial output grew 3.5 percent in May, down from an expansion of 5.6 percent in April, as manufacturers struggled with weak demand at home and offshore.
Shell boosts dividend, steadies oil output
Shell said it will ramp up its dividend and share buybacks while keeping oil output steady into 2030, even as CEO Wael Sawan moved to regain investor confidence that wavered over its energy transition plan.
Shell will increase its overall shareholder distribution to 30 to 40 percent of cash flow from operations, from 20 to 30 percent previously, it said in a new financial framework announced on Wednesday as part of an investor conference in New York.
That includes a 15 percent dividend boost and an increase in the rate of its share buyback program from the second quarter, spending $5 billion rather than $4 billion in recent quarters.
The plan is the linchpin of Sawan’s effort to boost Shell’s share performance relative to its US peers, which has suffered despite a record $40 billion profit last year.
The British company has faced concerns that it was shifting away from oil and gas at a time of booming energy prices while returns from its growing renewables and low-carbon businesses remained poor.
“Performance, discipline, and simplification will be our guiding principles,” said Sawan, who took office in January.
“We will invest in the models that work — those with the highest returns that play to our strengths,” he added in a statement.
The dividend increase, to around 33 cents per share, is the sixth since Shell slashed its 47-cent dividend in April 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first cut since the Second World War.
Shell also scrapped its previous target to cut oil output by 20 percent by 2030 after largely reaching the goal. It produced around 1.5 million barrels per day of oil in the first quarter of 2023.
It said it will keep its oil production steady until 2030 and grow its natural gas business to defend its position as the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas player.
Petroperu close to securing crude supply for Talara refinery
Peru’s state-owned energy firm Petroperu is negotiating with oil producers in the Americas and Asia to import about 63,000 barrels a day of crude for its newly modernized Talara refinery, the company’s president told Reuters on Wednesday.
Pedro Chira, president of Petroperu’s board of directors, said he expects to announce next week the winning companies after a 46 percent expansion of the refinery to 95,000 bpd.
“We are looking at options within Latin America and also in North America and Asia,” Chira said at his office in Lima.
“I think that in the next week, we would be able to announce who our suppliers will be.”
The Talara refinery is currently in a startup stage after a $5 billion modernization that began in 2014, and the company aims to reach full capacity from mid-July, Chira said.
(With input from Reuters)
