Starting The Day With 29 Active Rigs; Venezuela -- Tic, Tic, Tic -- July 12, 2016

Active rigs:

	7/12/2016	07/12/2015	07/12/2014	07/12/2013	07/12/2012
Active Rigs	29	73	190	186	212

RBN Energy: if all trades were index deals, what would the index be?

Yesterday, I gave four reasons why the tea leaves suggested the worse may not be over for the Bakken. One of the four reasons included the global economy. Just two hours ago, Platts reported that Chinese oil demand fell 2.7% in May, year-over-year.

Meanwhile, this Bloomberg headline: OPEC sees rising crude demand in 2017 as Saudis pump near record. Data points:

• Saudis produced 10.6 million bopd in June to meet summer demand (not only did it not seta record, the number itself is unremarkable; Saudi domestic demand is soaring)
• Saudi production increased by 280,000 bopd to 10.55 million; close to the record 10.564 million pumped last June
• OPEC said it will have to produce 33 million bopd next year to meet demand; 142,000 bopd more than its June output
• OPEC production in June increased by 264,100 bopd to 32.858 million
• global oil demand will increase by 1.2 million bopd to reach an average of 95.3 million
• growth will be concentrated in emerging economies such as India and China
• oil production outside OPEC will fall by 100,000 bopd (incredibly insignificant) to 55.9 million 
• non-OPEC decline is smaller than the contraction of 900,000 bopd expected this year 

Reuters reports that price of oil rose during recent "brief" Iraqi loading halt. Data points:

• brief halt due to pipeline leak, not terrorist or conflict-related
• although loadings resumed overnight, Iraq plans to cut crude oil exports from its southern ports to 2.79 million bopd in August from 2.99 million bopd planned for July
• story raises more questions than it answers

Newsweek has a nice piece on Jeff Bezos (Amazon).

Reuters reports that Citibank will close the Venezuelan government's foreign currency accounts within a month. According to the report, due to strict currency controls in place since 2003, the government relies on Citibank for foreign currency transactions.

AP's big story today: in Venezuela, the "line" takes precedent over everything else -- including stopping a murderer.