19. June 2020 | 07:42 CET
BP, Saturn Oil & Gas, Shell - China's oil imports at new record high
The Corona Pandemic has turned the world upside down in many areas in recent months. The energy sector has not been able to escape the changes. First the demand for crude oil collapsed and then production was cut back. In the meantime, restrictions around the globe are being eased again and there are still opportunities to position oneself to benefit from the post-Corona upswing. The habits of the population in big cities have changed. Public transport is being avoided due to the risk of infection and instead cars are being moved more. In China, an average of 11.34 million barrels of crude oil were imported per day in May 2020. This record value exceeds the previous record from November 2019 by around 160,000 barrels per day.
time to read: 1 minutes by Mario Hose
Good Canadian oil
In a modern society, the origin of crude oil will become increasingly important. In Canada, human rights are respected and the environment is protected. The young Canadian oil producer Saturn Oil & Gas also attaches importance to compliance with ESG guidelines. The company completed the year 2019 profitably and was already able to announce a profit for the first quarter of 2020.
A new management team took the helm in 2017 and realigned the company. Since then, over 30 horizontal wells have been drilled in the Viking Formation in western Saskatchewan. The Company recently announced that it is currently focusing on acquisitions. In March 2020, Jim Payne, CEO of the cleantech company dynaCERT, joined the Board of Directors of Saturn Oil & Gas. Another step towards environmental protection and sustainability. It can be observed that Payne, as an insider, continues to expand his position at Saturn through share purchases. Those who bought the company's shares three years ago are currently looking at a price gain of 36%.
Global player with tradition
The oil producer BP is one of the world's heavyweights and has a market value of EUR 75.7 billion. The company pays dividends to its shareholders and was recently rated as a ''buy'' by the analysts of Goldman Sachs and UBS. However, the share price has fallen by 33% over the past 36 months. The experts' assessment is probably not inconvenient.
Dividend cut after 75 years
At the beginning of 2020, Shell was still pursuing a share buyback programme. However, in connection with the fall in the price of crude oil, the purchase of own shares was suspended in order to preserve the company's liquidity reserves. Shell currently has a market value of EUR 117.9 billion. In the past three years, the shares have lost over 36% of their value. Moreover, the reduction in dividends after 75 years is unlikely to have caused much enthusiasm.
