Market Commentary
Inventories Remain Low Year-Over-Year
February 3, 2022
The DOE reported that crude oil supplies were down 1.047 million barrels putting total stocks at 415.143 million barrels and last year at this time there were 475.659 million a 60 million barrel difference. Gasoline stocks were up 2.410 million barrels putting total stocks at 250.037 million barrels and last […]
Russian and U.S. Diplomats Set to Discuss Ukraine Tensions
February 1, 2022
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will speak by phone today, Tuesday, as diplomatic efforts continue to reduce tensions over Ukraine. According to the EIA, US crude oil production increased over 2% to 11.75 million BPD in November as shale drillers continued post-pandemic recovery. […]
Commerzbank Says Price Correction is Overdue
January 31, 2022
The Baker Hughes Rig Count was up 4 oil rigs to a total of 495 oil rigs. US oil rigs have risen by 323 since 8/21/20. The geopolitical situations continue to add to the risk premium. The Russia – Ukraine concerns are still front and center and the concerns over […]
Russia-Ukraine Tensions Could Disrupt Oil Market
January 26, 2022
The energy markets continue to rally and price in concerns about supply disruptions related to Russian and Ukraine tensions, the UAE and Iran Houthis missile attacks on the rise, and OPEC+ struggling to increase output to meet their production targets. The API inventory report called crude oil supplies down 875,000 […]
Citi Analysts Say Global Oil Markets Are in “Fragile Balance”
January 14, 2022
Energy prices were down slightly except for the front-month ULSD, benefiting from increased heating oil demand in the East. Prices were off on profit-taking as traders were concerned about 40-year high inflation, causing the Federal Reserve to indicate they will raise rates four times this year starting in March. The […]
Fed Chair Expects Omicron Impacts to Be Short-Lived
January 12, 2022
The API report released yesterday had crude oil stocks down 1 million barrels, gasoline stocks up 10.86 million barrels, and distillate stocks up 3 million barrels. If we see a build like that is gas today on the DOE it might have some selling pressure on RBOB. On the other […]
Unrest in Kazakhstan, Outages in Libya Push Market Higher
January 7, 2022
The energy markets were higher again in yesterday’s trading pushed higher by the civil unrest in Kazakhstan, which producers 1.6 million BPD of crude oil, and due to major oil production outages in Libya. Prices were up for the fourth day in a row despite downward pressure from the bearish […]
Omicron May Be Stifling Energy Demand
January 6, 2022
The DOE report had crude stocks down 2.14 million barrels, Cushing, Ok crude stocks were up 2.57 million barrels. This was the 6th straight week that US crude oil inventories declined. Gasoline stocks were up 10.13 million barrels and distillates were up 4.42 million barrels. It was a bit interesting that […]
Market Observers Expect OPEC+ to Raise Crude Oil Production
January 4, 2022
The market expects OPEC+ to stay the course and add an additional 400,000 BPD starting February 1st. OPEC+ has continued to say that the impact on demand from Omicron is not enough for them to reduce output at this time. There are several OPEC members that are struggling to produce […]
More Barrels of Crude Oil Released From US Strategic Petroleum Reserve
January 3, 2022
The Baker Hughes Rig Count had oil rigs unchanged at a total of 480 and last year there were 267 oil rigs. Despite some of us not working on Friday the market was open so there was some trading. Prices were lower with crude down roughly 2.2% and refined fuel […]
Lower Trading Volume May Keep Prices Volatile Through the Holiday Season
December 22, 2021
Today is the last day to buy a contract his week. No contracts will be offered tomorrow Thursday, December 23, or Friday, December 24. Today is the last day to buy a forward contract until next Monday, December 27th. The average estimates for the DOE inventory report from the Bloomberg […]
Omicron News Brings Volatile Trading Swings
December 21, 2021
Yesterday was a volatile day of trading in the energy markets. Price fell almost 7% during the day hitting the lowest level in the past three weeks. The increasing cases of the Omicron variant have made traders nervous that new restrictions to ease the spread will slow fuel demand. Prices […]