2015 oil and gas production could be highest in decades

Oil prices have finished mixed as investors faced growing uncertainty over the Greek debt crisis and China’s efforts to stem a stocks rout in the world’s top energy consumer.

If a deal is reached, sanctions now limiting Iran’s oil exports would eventually be lifted, allowing the nation to sell more oil to the already-oversupplied global market.

The combination of Greece, Iran, China and an unexpected expansion of USA crude stockpiles in the final week of June combined to bring down prices, said Mike Wittner, head of oil market research at Societe Generale. This week’s low of $50.58 was the lowest since April. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, he established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends.

The gains on Thursday came after the Chinese government’s latest moves to calm the turmoil, including action to stop “major” shareholders – those holding at least a five per cent stake – from selling their stocks.

Oil rose for a second day on signs Iran and world powers will miss another deadline for a nuclear deal that could end sanctions on the OPEC producer.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August traded at $52.37 a barrel at 0430 GMT, up $0.72 in the Globex electronic session.

The EIA predicts the shale drilling juggernaut will continue slowing under the weight of a global oil collapse.

“Without the threat of sharply higher Iranian exports, the market’s likely to regain the week’s losses”, said Mansfield Oil Co.in a note.

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning.

Futures were little changed in New York after rising 2.2 percent on Thursday, the most since June 23.

In the meantime, you can expect a lot of confusion at the pumps as refiners, wholesalers, and dealers try to catch up with daily oil price gyrations.

Expectations of Iranian exports resuming on a larger scale by 2016 had had pulled down more forward oil prices more than closer to 1 percent.

The Indian basket of crude oil on the last trading day on Tuesday fell to United States dollars 56 a barrel, as China’s stock market-plunge and the Greek crisis revived the spectre of weaker economic growth that could impact oil demand.

The differences between rival Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran also could point to lower oil and gasoline prices ahead.