Market Commentary
British Economy Contracting Under Inflationary Pressure
June 13, 2022
The news this morning is more covid restrictions in China which has caused concerns for energy demand, and this has created selling in the early trading. From John Kemp of Reuters. Britain’s economy has started to contract as surging inflation hits household and business spending. Real output fell or was […]
New Shanghai Lockdowns Pressure Crude Market
June 10, 2022
The news out of Shanghai that new COVID lockdowns were being put in place pressure crude price yesterday, but refined fuels products rallied higher on lower inventories for gasoline and good demand. Norway’s production is potentially going to be disrupted as there is a possible oil workers’ strike starting Sunday. […]
World Bank Cuts Global Growth Forecast
June 8, 2022
The API report came out and called crude oil stocks up 1.8 million barrels, gasoline stocks up 1.8 million barrels and distillate stocks up 3.4 million barrels. The average estimates for today’s DOE inventory report from the Bloomberg survey is calling for crude stocks to show a draw of 2.83 […]
OPEC+ Will Raise Crude Output in July & August
June 3, 2022
The propane inventory report showed a build of 3.239 million barrels bringing total stocks to 49.572 million barrels. Last year at this time total stocks were at 48.151 million barrels. There are now 1.421 million more barrels than last year at this time. Midwest stocks were up 702,000 barrels putting […]
Gas Prices Hit Fresh Record High
June 1, 2022
The energy markets rallied significantly in the morning trading hours yesterday but then sold off near the end of the trading day. Prices rallied on the news that the EU had plans to implement a partial ban on Russian oil imported by sea. This news initially was bullish for the […]
Biden Asks About Reopening Shuttered Refineries
May 31, 2022
The number of oil rigs in the US was down by two in last week’s Baker Hughes oil rig count update. Total oil rigs are at 574 rigs and last year at this time rigs were at 359. Bloomberg reported that more than 1 million bpd of the country’s (US) […]
OPEC Sticks to Production Plan Despite Western Pleas for Increases
May 27, 2022
The Energy Markets are closed on Monday for Memorial Day, there is no forward contracting that day. Six OPEC+ sources stated the OPEC+ is set to stick to an oil production deal agreed to last year at its meeting on June 2 and raise July output targets by 432,000 bpd, […]
Russian Crude Concerns Continue to Support Prices
May 26, 2022
The DOE inventory report said that crude oil supplies were down 1.02 million barrels. Total stocks are now 419.801 million barrels and last year there were 484.349 million barrels a 64.548 million barrel difference. Cushing, Ok crude supplies were down 1.061 million barrels putting total stocks at 24.778 million and […]
EU Commission Unlikely to Vote on Russian Oil Embargo at Upcoming Meeting
May 25, 2022
The energy markets are closed on Monday May 30th for Memorial Day. There will be no forward contracting that day as markets are closed. The API said that crude oil stocks were up 567,000 barrels, gasoline stocks were down 4.2 million barrels and distillates were down 949,000 barrels. The average […]
Regional Diesel Inventories Hit Lowest Levels Since 1990
May 24, 2022
The White House is considering tapping the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, created in 2000 to help with diesel supply issues. The impact of the release would be limited by the relatively small size of the reserve, which only contain 1 million barrels of diesel. US East Coast distillates fuel […]
Motorists are driving more despite higher fuel prices
May 23, 2022
WTI crude oil price rose 2.5% for the week but appeared rangebound and caught between slower economic growth due to strict monetary policy (rising interest rates) and current short fuel product supplies worldwide. China lifting COVID restrictions could make supplies tighter. Data from TomTom and Google indicates that driving is […]
US Strategic Petroleum Reserve at Lowest Level Since 1987
May 17, 2022
Crude and RBOB futures did manages to trade higher in yesterday’s markets. Prices were lower in the morning trading hours due to poor economic data from China and the US. Prices rallied later in the day as news hit that China was easing lockdowns in Shanghai and the fact that […]