August 4, 2015
A “re-test” of the $45-a-barrel low for the benchmark Brent crude oil price is “inevitable” in the near future as supply prices continue to squeeze the market, an analyst arm of Fitch Ratings has said.
The comments from BMI Research, quoted by Reuters, came in the wake of major falls on Monday that saw the price dip below $50 for the first time in six months. A price of $45 would be symbolically significant in the UK as it is the level at which petrol prices below £1 a litre become a distinct possibility.
The Financial Times notes the first trading session in August brought a fall of 5.2 per cent to $49.52 as data showed global production continuing to rise, adding to oversupply concerns, with worries persisting over a manufacturing slowdown in China. Commodities markets have recovered some “poise” in Tuesday trading, the FT says in a separate report, and Brent has moved back marginally above $50.
BMI said prices would remain depressed in the coming months amid pressure from a strong dollar, weakening Chinese economy and the prospect of Iranian oil further flooding the market. “A re-test of Brent crude’s 2015 low around $45 per barrel looks inevitable given current ample market supply and intensifying bearish market sentiment toward prices,” the firm said in a note to clients.
But analysts say it is unlikely there will be a return to the significantly below $50 norms pre-2005, or the high $100-plus levels the market had become accustomed to in recent years. Instead a “mid-price era” is now looming: BMI itself said it expected prices to move back towards $60 in 2016, in line with consensus forecasts of a return to $60-$70.
In the short-term, however, the trend is down. Sabine Schels, a commodities strategist with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, told the Wall Street Journal “we are probably a few dollars away” from a bottom, while David Hufton, of oil brokerage PVM, told the paper “the prospects of a second half-year price rebound have evaporated”.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
