Today, US crude oil prices rose to nearly $51 per barrel, the largest daily gain in approximately two weeks.
And although the rise in prices are largely tied to approximately 85 percent of US oil production in the Gulf of Mexico remaining offline due to last week’s tropical storm, news that Saudi Arabia would be cutting November oil exports by more than 550,000 barrels per day left many feeling optimistic that OPEC’s efforts to address the global crude oil glut were sincere.
And despite the recent report by Baker Hughes, which indicated that for the week ending Oct. 6, the number of US rotary rigs drilling for oil decreased by 2, to 748, there are still 320 more rigs targeting oil today then there were during the same reporting period in 2016.
In terms of how this is impacting market activity for US domestic and import J55 ERW OCTG casing, sources continue to report that while activity continues to flatten out, as is typical during the last months of the year, overall optimism remains strong.
Pricing for Taiwanese J55 ERW OCTG casing within the US domestic market has once again remained stable, at $41.00-$42.50 cwt. ($904-$937/mt or $820-$850/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports.
The most recent data from the US Department of Commerce indicates that for the month of September, the US imported 32,432 mt (license data) of OCTG casing from Taiwan, compared to 8,463 mt (census data) during the month of August.