Saudi Arabia, Iraq In Deep Doo-Doo, Update #23 -- June 12, 2020

Market sell-off yesterday and now this: price of oil keeps falling. Linked at the sidebar at the right.

Saudi called for a 2020 budget based on $110-oil when that budget released in late 2019.

Revised budget and revenue projections in early 2020 moved their target to $84-oil.

Last statement from Saudi Sam aka Alfalfa, former energy minister: "We are comfortable with $30-oil."

By the way, the new Saudi energy minister is Prince MbS's son, Prince AbS, or Prince ABBA as his friends call him.

Since then:

• demand destruction;
• plummeting prices;
• foreign exchange reserves at historic lows 

Saudi's petrochemical unit losing money: link here.

Saudi Arabia's state-controlled petrochemical giant Sabic last month declared a loss of 950mn riyals ($253mn) in the first quarter of this year, compared with a profit of $909 million in the first quarter of 2019.

The loss was the partly the result of a fall in the average prices of its products.

Sabic is planning to cut its capital expenditure, in line with moves by other energy and petrochemical producers.

ExxonMobil has lowered its 2020 capex budget by 30pc, with the bulk of the reduction going to its Permian onshore shale operations in the US.

BP's spending cuts for this year include a reduction of around $1bn on short-cycle onshore investment and deferrals of exploration activity. Shell, Total and Chevron have also announced sharp reductions in their 2020 capex budgets.

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The Big Question: Who Swoops In To Swallow Up Iraqi's Oilfields? 

China or Russia

Iraq fighting for its very survival. Link here. What did Iraq do with all that money the past several years?