Miscellaneous
Poor Countries Borrowed Billions from China. They Can’t Pay It Back.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/business/china-loans-coronavirus-belt-road.html- China has loaned money for projects to make developing nations. They can’t pay because their economies are down from Coronavirus. China is open to renegotiating debt but not forgiving it.- Many countries have discovered that Belt and Road Initiatives from China aren’t all they had cracked up to be. Nothing good happening for countries.- Beijing is a bigger lender than the World Bank and the IMF at this point.- Many African nations would prefer that the US rather than China fund these projects. But its harder for the US due to legal restrictions but there is an opportunity here because African countries are dissatisfied with ChinaIran Is Hauling Gold Bars Out of Venezuela’s Almost-Empty Vaultshttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/iran-is-hauling-gold-bars-out-of-venezuela-s-almost-empty-vaultsIran warns US of 'firm response' if action taken against its fuel tankershttps://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/051820-iran-warns-us-of-firm-response-if-action-taken-against-its-fuel-tankersOil jumps to two-month high on easing lockdowns, positive vaccine resultshttps://in.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idINKBN22U033- will be see demand surge based on normal indicators?- If China returns to pre-Coronavirus demand so soon, can we get there too?- Was the Vaccine headline really worthy of the jump in oil prices? Very preliminary.Oil jumps 8% to two-month high above $31 as June futures contract nears expirationhttps://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/oil-news-crude-wti-brnet-prices-today.htmlTraders feared June oil futures would go negative, instead they expire Tuesday possibly above $30https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/oil-outlook-vastly-different-than-when-it-plunged-into-negative-territory-a-month-ago.html- Last month’s negative pricing was a fluke, at the June expiry WTI is above $32- No one is freaking out about storage anymore- Enterprise CEO said there’s no storage problem, aren’t going to hit the top- Actual storage level was only at 60% not 70% as people had been saying- Energy Transfer and Enterprise offered to turn pipelines into storageGlobal Oil 2000 in Forbeshttps://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2020/05/13/global-2000-saudi-aramco-debuts-as-worlds-largest-oil-company-while-industry-reels-from-crisis/#430dd126999f