Market Commentary

Shell was forced to shut in production on three Gulf of Mexico offshore deep water platforms due to a pipe issues. This will impact 410,000 bpd of production. This week is a volatile one with early down days finishing higher and early up days finishing lower. This is the result […]

The API weekly inventory numbers called crude oil stocks up 2.15 million barrels, gasoline stocks down 627,000 and distillates up 1.37 million. The Reuters survey for today’s DOE reports is saying crude oil and gasoline to be down 400,000 and diesel to be roughly unchanged. Crude oil prices feel slightly […]

OPEC+ agreed to increase production by just 100,000 bpd which is nothing really, but they did up the number. The market has rallied and now sold off to roughly the same price level when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The market is now looking for the next catalyst to […]

The average estimates for today’s DOE inventory report from the Bloomberg survey are for crude to be down 798,00 barrels, gasoline down 1.014 million barrels and distillates up 740,000 barrels. In propane, weak domestic demand has led to larger than expected inventory builds and, despite growth in domestic production, propane […]

JP Morgan said its Brent crude oil price forecast continues to call for a stabilization in price towards the low $100s in the second half of 2022 and the high 90s in 2023. It said “our oil strategists’ flag that the risk of a recession is not yet priced into […]

The API report estimated crude stocks down 4 million barrels, gasoline stocks down 1.1 million barrels and distillates stocks down 554,000 barrels. The International Monetary Fund cut global growth forecast again on Tuesday, warning the downside risks from high inflation and the Ukrainian war were materializing and could push the […]

Gazprom has reduced rates on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20% of normal after the restart from maintenance just a few days ago. The line was first at 40% but is now cut back to 20% because Gazprom says they are waiting on a turbine that was repaired in […]

US crude oil inventories are 6% below the five year average, gasoline inventories are 3% below the five year average, and distillates are 23% below the five year average. Propane inventories are currently 16% below the five year average. The Baker Hughes Rig Count had oil rigs unchanged on the […]

The energy markets were down hard in early trading but did rally back off their lows. WTI crude oil settled $1.76 off its low. RBOB gas was $0.1246 cents off its low of the day and ULSD was $0.1673 cents of its low of the day. Lower demand, concerns about […]

Crude oil inventories at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for the NYMEX WTI futures contracts, are at 21.6 million barrels, the lowest seasonal level since 2014. Stocks have not been this low since 2008, when front-month WTI crude prices were at $122 (or $170 per barrel adjusted for inflation). Energy […]

President Joe Biden met with officials from Saudi Arabia on Friday, and the bottom line is that it did not yield any action to produce more crude oil. This has again increased the concerns about supply and should offer some support to prices. Of course, both sides are reporting a […]

The EIA inventory report said that crude oil stocks were up 3.25 million barrels, gasoline stocks up 5.83 million barrels and distillates up 2.67 million barrels. Builds across the board is a welcome thing but take the over six million barrels SPR release and crude stocks over all are down. […]