Market Commentary
OPEC Claims Omicron Will Have “Minor” Market Impact
December 14, 2021
Energy prices were lower yesterday and have settled into a sideways range. The major concern keeping prices stuck is the Omicron coronavirus variant causing world oil demand to fall. The US is also going to sell 18 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve on December 17th. […]
Iranian Nuclear Talks End with No Progress
December 9, 2021
The DOE numbers had crude oil inventories down 241,000 barrels and Cushing, Ok crude stocks were up 2.373 million barrels. Gasoline stocks were up 3.882 million barrels and distillates were up 2.733 million barrels. Inventory levels are still on the lower side of the 5-year averages and overall that is […]
Market Rebounds From Black Friday Lows
December 7, 2021
The positive outlook has returned to the market as money looking for returns brushes off the concerns about the Omicron variant and piles back into the energy markets. Bullish headlines brought out the buyers. Saudi Arabia raised its official selling price to the US and Asian market on crude oil. […]
Omicron Casts Uncertainty Over Markets
December 6, 2021
The Omicron variant has put uncertainty into the energy markets, but it now appears that most traders seem to think its impact on demand may be minor and the demand recovery will begin again. Saudi Arabia raised the selling price for oil shipped to Asia and the US, a move […]
White House Welcomes OPEC+ Decision to Increase Oil Output
December 3, 2021
OPEC+ said they would stick to their plan to add 400,000 BPD of oil output in January as they had agreed to each month since August. They did say they would monitor the market closely with the new Omicron strain and make immediate adjustments if necessary. Any decision by OPEC+ […]
Warm Weather Helps Balance Lower Propane Stocks
December 2, 2021
Propane inventories were down 952,000 gallons a little less than the expectations. Total propane stocks sit at 72.660 million barrels and last year at this time there were 91.718 million barrels a negative (19.058) million barrel difference. Midwest stocks were down 417,000 barrels putting total Midwest stocks at 24.393 million […]
Fed Comments Contribute to Selling Pressure
December 1, 2021
Jerome Powell added to the selling yesterday as he commented that tapering of the Fed’s assets purchases would likely happen sooner than expected next year on the back of the strengthening economy. He also said that it was pretty clear that the thought of “transitory” is now long gone and […]
Nuclear Talks with Iran Set to Resume
November 30, 2021
The Biden administration said they will continue with their plans to release barrels from the SPR despite crude oil’s recent price pullback. This will add to current bearishness. The administration also said if needed they would be willing to release more barrels from the SPR to calm prices. The nuclear […]
US Releases 50M Barrels from Strategic Petroleum Reserve
November 23, 2021
The news just broke that the US will release 50 million barrels out of the SPR. The 50 million barrels release will consist of 32 million barrels as a swap/loan over the next several months and 18 million barrels will be an accelerated release from a previously authorized release. India […]
European Lockdowns Create Market Concerns
November 22, 2021
The Baker Hughes Rig Count said that oil rigs were up 7 to a total of 461 rigs. This put oil rigs at their highest total since April 2020. The news that Japan and the US might make a joint release from their oil reserves this week has the market […]
Biden Signs $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill
November 16, 2021
Energy prices closed mixed in yesterday’s trading after being down hard in early trading hours of the day. Putting bearish pressure on prices is the continuing concern of a large release of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help lower gas prices for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Also putting selling […]
US Lifts Travel Restrictions on 33 Countries
November 10, 2021
The API report had crude down 2.485 million barrels, Cushing crude stocks up 234,000, gasoline down 552,000 and distillates up 573,000. The Bloomberg estimates for today’s DOE inventory report are for crude to be up 1.6, gasoline down 1.2 and distillates down 1.1. The US lifted travel restrictions on 33 […]