The oil and gas market, like the rest of the (financial) world, is anxiously watching the import tariff plans that Trump will unveil tonight. Previously, the American president has linked many of his tariff threats to oil and gas. For example, European countries could get away with it by importing more American oil and gas and he recently said that every country that imports oil from Venezuela would be subject to a 25% import tariff.
The oil price continues to wobble a bit between high and low in the €74. Last Thursday (March 27), Brent oil was at $74,03 per barrel. At the time of writing (Wednesday afternoon, April 2), it is $74,01 per barrel.
The market is waiting for Donald Trump's import tariff plans. April 2 has been declared Liberation Day by the US president, the day on which he will announce new trade tariffs that he says will also go into effect immediately. This will take place at 22:00 PM our time.
If Trump’s trade war escalates, it could have a negative effect on the economy, not only the US but also other countries. Less economic growth also means less demand for oil.
In order to support the oil price, OPEC+ had imposed production restrictions on itself and the organization has just started to gradually loosen the restrictions this month. Reuters reports based on sources that the oil cartel is sticking to its plan to further increase production in May. However, eight OPEC+ countries are limiting production because they pumped more oil than agreed. The oil cartel will meet later this week and it is expected that this topic will certainly be on the table.
According to the recent estimate from The American Petroleum Institute (API), US crude oil inventories rose by more than 6 million barrels last week, after falling by 4,6 million barrels a week earlier.
Gas filling level in the Netherlands lags behind Europe
The gas price also remains fairly stable this week (just like last week), around €42 per MWh on the TTF. The filling level of the Dutch gas supply is just over 21%, which is a slight decrease compared to last week. For the entire EU, the filling level remains at almost 34% according to data from Gie/Agsi. For almost all of Europe, temperatures of just above 17 to 0 degrees are expected until April 14, so there is no need to stoke up.
Sun and wind cause negative electricity prices
Electricity took a significant dip on the EPEX Day-Ahead on Sunday 30 March to €9,46 per MWh. For such low prices we have to go back to 12 May and 6 June, although there were negative prices then. There is an abundance of renewable energy these days. On the EPEX Intraday there were nine hours today in which the average price was negative. A lot of sun and wind is also predicted for the coming days.
Subsidy for companies that are stuck due to grid congestion
Companies with a connection of 100kW or more that are stuck due to the full power grid can apply for a subsidy from this week to hire advice (maximum 50% of the costs) and/or make investments (maximum 35% of the costs up to €300.000) in order to be able to grow further and/or become more sustainable. This concerns solutions that avoid peak hours on the power grid. A total of €62 million has been made available for the new 'Flex-e scheme'. "Grid operators and the government are working on expanding the power grid as quickly as possible, but that takes time. It is therefore important to make better use of the space on the power grid", according to the government. The support can be applied for via RVO until 15 October of this year.