Oil supply remains ample as the US boosts output, suppressing prices. Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg
Oil supply remains ample as the US boosts output, suppressing prices. Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg

Oil prices stay on downward path



Oil prices dropped by 1 per cent on Tuesday, extending falls from the previous session as global financial markets headed south in the wake of one of the biggest intra-day falls ever registered on Wall Street.

Brent crude oil futures were at $66.93 per barrel at 03.52 GMT, down 69 cents, or 1 per cent, from the previous close. That was more than $4 below their high-point for 2018, hit last month.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were at $63.45 a barrel, down 70 cents, or 1.1 per cent, from their last settlement and more than $3 off their 2018-high.

Financial markets went into a tailspin on Monday when US stocks plunged in highly volatile trading which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumble by almost 1,600 points in intra-day trading, its biggest ever point-to-point loss within one trading session, as investors grappled with rising bond yields and potentially firming inflation.

US S&P 500 futures tumbled 2.5 per cent to four-month lows in Asian trade on Tuesday, as the sell-off triggered by worries about inflation showed no sign of abating.

“Suddenly, inflation has become one of the most-talked about issues in markets,” US bank JP Morgan said in a note to clients.

However, the correction in oil is more than a reaction to the sell-off in financial markets.

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Despite efforts led by Opec and Russia to withhold production since January last year in order to tighten the market and prop up prices, crude supplies remain relatively ample.

That’s largely due to soaring US oil production, which has jumped by almost 18 per cent since mid-2016 to 10 million barrels per day (bpd) - surpassing output by leading exporter Saudi Arabia.

Only Russia produces more, averaging 10.98 million bpd in 2017.

What’s more, there are indications that US oil output will rise further: the amount of rigs drilling for oil fields rose to 765 by late January, easily more than double the 316 that were in operation during 2016’s production lull.

There is also a seasonal downturn to demand, as many refineries shut for maintenance following the upcoming end to the peak-consumption winter heating season in the northern hemisphere.

The largest US refinery, Motiva Enterprises’ 603,000 bpd Port Arthur facility in Texas, began a planned one-month overhaul on Monday of its key crude oil processing unit.

Consequently, hedge fund managers have cut their bullish exposure to petroleum for the first time in six weeks.

Company%20Profile
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Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

Yuki Means Happiness
Alison Jean Lester
John Murray 

Black Panther
Dir: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o
Five stars

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

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Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla

Director: Raed Zeno

Rating: 4/5

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Started: September 2023
Founder: Muhammad Khalid
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Generative AI
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
 
INDIA SQUAD

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj and Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper)

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Joker: Folie a Deux

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson

Director: Todd Phillips 

Rating: 2/5

'Will%20of%20the%20People'
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COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO

Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday 

Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD

Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

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The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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FA Cup quarter-final draw

The matches will be played across the weekend of 21 and 22 March

Sheffield United v Arsenal

Newcastle v Manchester City

Norwich v Derby/Manchester United

Leicester City v Chelsea

UFC%20FIGHT%20NIGHT%3A%20SAUDI%20ARABIA%20RESULTS
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Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits

Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine

Storage: 128/256/512GB

Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4

Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps

Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID

Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight

In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
BORDERLANDS

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis

Director: Eli Roth

Rating: 0/5

Race card

5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m

6.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,400m

6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Dirt) 1,400m

7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 1,200m

7.50pm: Longines Stakes – Conditions (TB) Dh120,00 (D) 1,900m

8.25pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m

9pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 2,410m

9.35pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 2,000m