IIR's May 22 Market Scorecard Brings You Breaking Geopolitical News

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Stay current with the latest geopolitical events, and more importantly, instantly connect to how these events may impact you and your business strategies.

Event	MarCon*	IIR Comment	Outlet	IIR News
Oil price gains seen as China's economy continues rebound		Commodity analysts expect the oil market to tighten in the second half of the year regardless of progress on the U.S. debt ceiling, pushing oil prices higher, but perhaps not as high as was anticipated earlier this year. The International Energy Agency last week joined a growing queue of voices pointing to a tighter market in the second half of the year. China's demand recovery has surpassed expectations, the IEA said, while the economies of the OECD are poised to follow suit in the second half of the year. Tamas Varga, an analyst at London oil broker PVM, said market reports from the likes of the IEA and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries were "brutally bullish" in their demand estimates, with record-level consumption expected from June onward.	Houston Chronicle	Occidental Petroleum, Calpine: Your Daily Energy News
Oil price forecast: weakening amid debt ceiling concerns, fuel demand threatened		WTI Oil prices dropped on debt ceiling, default, and inflation concerns, but China's demand helps alleviate uncertainties. The markets were unsettled by comments made by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who stated that inflation was "far above" the Fed's objective. Powell also mentioned that no decisions had been made yet regarding the next interest rate action. These remarks led to a decrease in U.S. stocks, Treasury yields, and the value of the dollar. In addition the U.S. oil rig count, a leading indicator of future production, experienced a significant weekly decline of 11 to reach 575 rigs. This decline represents the largest weekly drop since September 2021, according to energy services firm Baker Hughes Co.	FXEmpire	Riding the Oil Markets? Fasten Up, Volatility is Ahead
Biden, McCarthy to meet on debt ceiling as Wall Street starts to worry		President Biden is set to meet Monday with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to resume negotiations over raising the nation's debt ceiling, as Washington races to resolve a crisis that is beginning to sow increasing anxiety on Wall Street. After a weekend of turbulent, on-again-off-again talks, Democrats and Republicans return to the bargaining table with the clock ticking: They have as few as 10 days to broker a deal to raise or suspend the debt ceiling before the treasury runs out of cash and other options to pay the government's bills. Unless Congress permits Treasury to add to the nation's $31.5 trillion debt, the U.S. government could default on its obligations for the first time in history...	Washington Post	If Oil Prices Soar, Blame Some of it on the Permian
IEA chief warns that europe's energy market is "not out of the woods" yet		Despite a marked decline in benchmark natural gas prices in Europe this year, the continent is "not out of the woods" yet as three factors could worsen the European energy crisis later this year, Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told CNBC this weekend. "Europe countries did a good job... last winter," Birol told CNBC's Martin Soong on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan, ... "Europe was able to transform its energy markets, reduce its share of Russian gas to less than 4%, and its economy still didn't go through a recession," Birol noted. However, expected higher LNG demand in China after the reopening, the possibility of a U.S. default, and the remaining dependence on Russian gas are three reasons why Europe shouldn't be complacent ahead of the 2023/2034 winter, the IEA's top executive warned.	OilPrice	Natural Gas as Bridge Fuel During Energy Transition
Chevron to buy PDC Energy in $7.6 billion deal		Chevron Corp said on Monday it would acquire PDC Energy Inc in an all-stock transaction for $7.6 billion, including debt, adding new drilling inventory to its U.S. oil and gas reserves. The company has been under pressure on Wall Street to show it can keep expanding production after 2027 as its main shale holdings in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico near their peak output. The PDC Energy deal is the second in three years that bulks up Chevron's shale operations in Colorado and Wyoming. Chevron is already one of the larger producers in the Denver-Julesburg Basin after its acquisition of Noble Energy in 2020 for $13 billion. With the acquisition of PDC, Chevron will add 10% to its proved reserves at a projected cost of less than $7 per barrel, the company said in a statement.	Reuters	ONEOK to Acquire Magellan Midstream for $18.8 Billion
America's big shift to green energy has a woolly mammoth problem		America's renewable energy drive needs more than a million miles of new transition lines but emerging resistance includes opponents worried about building them in one of the country's richest areas of ice-age fossils. The Greenlink West project would build a 470-mile-long transmission line bringing clean electricity north of Las Vegas to Reno in Nevada, but it cuts through an area containing everything from woolly mammoth tusks to giant sloths to ancient camels. The pushback has highlighted a major, and growing, challenge to Joe Biden's attempts to expand clean energy in order to tackle the climate crisis - how to quickly build vast new networks of electricity transmission across America without falling afoul of local communities and green groups. If the US is to eliminate planet-heating emissions by 2050 it will need to increase the capacity of its current 700,000 circuit-mile network of poles and wires by threefold, researchers have estimated...	The Guardian	Lithium-Ion Battery Projects Spring Up on U.S. Great Lakes Shores
Week 05/15/23 - 05/22/23		Cautious optimism is the prevalent theme of many a pundit--as yes, there is not yet a resolution to the U.S. debt ceiling crisis but knowing Uncle Sam's penchant for waiting until the 13th hour to strike a deal there in all likelihood will be. So Mr. Market looks ahead and sees on the horizon - not a storm brewing - but rather a sign of increasing demand in the East with the Dragon. This voracious appetite from the Dragon - demand recovery exceeding expectations - amidst tighter supplies has IEA & OPEC bullish for the 2nd half of the year. But - isn't there always a rebuttal - the Western World... especially the Eagle is not out of the proverbial woods yet as an economic recession is still in the cards...
*MarCon (Market Condition 1-5, with 5 being the highest impact) indicates directional bias or price effect for the relevant commodity (Oil, Natural Gas, Chemicals, etc.) and is graded by our team of experts here at IIR.

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