中國石化新聞網訊 據今日油價12月10日報導，石油生產國在油價暴跌後忙於填補預算缺口，而石油進口國則從低油價中受益，其中一些國家正在對衝價格上漲的風險。
例如埃及，一個石油淨進口國，已經將其石油套期保值增加了近一倍，以保護自己免受石油進口成本上升的影響。
埃及財政部長Mohamed Maait在談到截至2021年6月的2020-2021財政年度計劃時表示："我們籤署了大量對衝合約。"但他沒有詳細說明埃及為此付出了多少成本，以及具體對衝金額。
這並不是埃及第一次購買看漲期權，這使埃及有權以某個預先確定的價格購買石油。在過去兩年裡，由於燃料成本較低，特別是部分燃料得到補貼，減輕了政府財政負擔，該國對油價上漲進行了對衝。
作為與國際貨幣基金組織（IMF）達成的一項貸款協議的一部分，埃及大幅削減了燃料補貼。
值得注意的是，埃及石油套期保值的消息傳出前幾天，有報導稱，石油生產國墨西哥每年都要進行華爾街最大、最隱秘的套期保值。然而，與埃及不同的是，墨西哥通過對衝來保護自己不受低油價的影響，關注看跌期權，這讓它有了以預定價格出售石油的權利。
墨西哥石油對衝，或稱Hacienda對衝，被認為是華爾街最大的對衝賭注，也可能是最隱秘的，這樣的對衝可以在油價暴跌的情況下減少損失。今年早些時候，人們認為是石油對衝使墨西哥經濟免於崩潰。據彭博社報導，2020年的對衝為墨西哥帶來了多達25億美元的收益。
王佳晶 摘譯自 今日油價
原文如下：
Egypt Buys Huge Oil Contracts To Hedge Against Rising Prices
While oil-producing nations are scrambling to plug budget shortfalls after the price crash, oil importers are benefiting from the low oil prices, and some of them are hedging against higher prices.
Egypt, for example—a net oil importer—has nearly doubled its oil hedges to protect itself against higher oil import costs, Egyptian Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told Bloomberg in an interview published on Wednesday.
「We did a huge number of hedging contracts,」 Maait said about the program for the fiscal 2020-2021 ending in June 2021, without giving details about how much it cost Egypt to do that or how much it has hedged.
This is not the first time that Egypt has resorted to buying call options, which give it the right to buy oil at a certain predetermined price. Over the past two years, the country has also hedged against higher oil prices as low costs for fuel, especially if part of the fuel is subsidized, alleviates the burden on government finances.
Egypt has significantly cut subsidies on fuels as part of a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan in exchange for reforms.
News of Egypt’s oil hedge comes days after reports emerged about the annual hedge of a large oil producer, Mexico, which undertakes every year the largest and most secretive hedge on Wall Street.
Unlike Egypt, however, Mexico hedges to protect itself against low oil prices—so it buys put options, which give it the right to sell oil at a predetermined price.
The Mexican oil hedge, or the Hacienda Hedge, is considered the biggest hedging bet on Wall Street as well as perhaps the most secretive. Such hedges minimize the losses in case oil prices crash. Earlier this year, it was the oil hedge that is thought to have saved Mexico’s economy from ruin.
This year’s annual hedge made Mexico as much as US$2.5 billion, according to Bloomberg.