Ceasefire Talks in Middle East Ease Crude Pricing
July 9, 2024
Energy prices have pulled back over the last few days. Crude oil prices are being helped by the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, and the fact that Hurricane Berly’s potential to disrupt energy facilities is now passed. Overall, the impact from Berly appears to have been limited. Some production was impacted and roughly 85% of Houston lost power but the impact to refineries and oil production was limited.
Here are some of the refinery and port updates from Reuters:
Citgo temporarily reduced operations at its 165,000 bpd Corpus Christi refinery.
Marathon began preparing a restart of multiple units at is 631,000 bpd Galveston Bay refinery.
P66 reported normal operations as its 265,000 bpd Sweeny refinery following a short disruption.
Freeport LNG ramped down operations on Sunday and has not provided a timeline for when operations are to return.
The Port of Houston is supposed to stay closed today. The Port of Corpus Christi reopened yesterday.
The markets will be waiting for the release of the CPI data on Thursday. Jerome Powell will be speaking on behalf of the Federal Reserve in front of Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday, and market participants will be looking for any hints of a rate cut.