Crude and Refined Fuel Were Up 4 Percent
August 14, 2019
Crude oil and refined fuel product prices all closed up by more than 4% yesterday, which was mainly driven by news that some of the new tariffs of U.S. imports from China will be postponed until December 15th. To benefit U.S. consumers for holiday shopping, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will be delayed on a slew of goods such as laptop computers, cell phones, and video games.
This news of the tariffs being delayed sent equites higher and energy followed right along as many buyers were ready to jump on board.
The API reported that crude oil stocks were up 3.7 million barrels. Crude stocks at Cushing, Ok were down 2.2 million barrels. Gasoline stocks were reported up 3.7 million barrels and distillates socks were called down 1.3 million barrels.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency quoted unidentified Gibraltar authorities as saying that Iran’s seized oil tanker, Grace 1, will be freed by Tuesday evening. Gibraltar said it was seeking to de-escalate issues arising with Iran since the detention of the Grace 1 tanker by British marines in July. Meanwhile, Iran also stated that Britain may free its oil tanker soon, after some documents were exchanged that would help the seized ship’s release.
According to the latest S&P Global Platts survey of OPEC output, Saudi Arabia produced 9.7 million bpd in July, about 600,000 bpd below its quota under the OPEC and non-OPEC output cut agreement.
Estimated for today’s propane inventory update is a build of 2.3 million barrels.
European Union GDP was up just 0.2% in the second quarter, down from 0.4% in the first quarter. Germany’s growth dropped from Q1 0.9% to Q2 0.4%. More data that is not showing favorable for economies around the globe adding to the concern about a potential slow down.