Marathon to Keep to Refineries Closed Indefinitely
August 3, 2020
The Baker Hughes Rig Count report from Friday said that oil rigs were down 1 to a total of 180 oil rigs. Total US all rigs types there are 251 rigs and last year at this time there were 942 total rigs.
The market is trading slightly higher this morning currently despite the fact that OPEC+ officially is now increasing production here in August. They are set to increase production by 1.9 million bpd at a time when the outlook for global demand is not strongly positive.
The EIA on Friday reported that crude oil production for May 2020 fell by 1.989 million bpd from April 2020. This was the largest month to month fall on record. There is a 2-month lag in the EIA monthly crude oil data, but it is said to be much more accurate than the weekly EIA production data.
Marathon said they will not restart two of its refineries in California and New Mexico, due to concerns that demand for fuel is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels this year.
Energy price continue to be concerned with increasing cases of the coronavirus and more crude oil from OPEC+. But there was some good news out of Europe and China with several manufacturing purchasing index numbers increasing. China’s was at 52.8 for July , the best reading for output and new orders since July 2011. Spain’s index rose to 53.5 best since April 2008 and eurozone PMI came in better than the estimates.