Market Commentary
Fed Announces It Will Taper Asset Purchases
November 4, 2021
The energy market had a big sell-off yesterday which was the result of several factors. Energy prices have been on a strong rally higher for some time and have needed a correction. It appears that correction started yesterday, and then additional items were added to the selling. The DOE inventory […]
Markets Await OPEC+ Production Decisions
November 3, 2021
The API report from yesterday had crude stocks up 3.6 million barrels. Gasoline stocks were down 552,000 barrels and distillate stocks were up 573,000 barrels. The crude stocks at Cushing, Ok were down 882,000 barrels. The energy markets did move lower after the release of the API stats yesterday and […]
China Opens Its Fuel Reserve to Stabilize Prices
November 1, 2021
China said they were releasing products from the state fuel reserve to try and help prevent a diesel shortage. They also were going to release some gasoline as well to try and help stabilize prices. Diesel supplies have been drawn down as more of it has been in use in […]
EU and Iran Resume Nuclear Negotiations
October 28, 2021
A brief meeting between the EU and Iran lead to the news that nuclear negotiations would resume in November. If an agreement can be reached the thought is that the US will stop sanctions against Iran, and they could bring an additional 1.6 million barrels of production to the market. […]
Crude Oil Prices Hit 7-Year High on Tight Supplies
October 26, 2021
Energy prices traded higher yesterday with crude oil hitting the highest level in seven years, on the back of tight global supplies amid rising demand as economies recover from the pandemic across the globe. RBOB and ULSD closed higher and WTI crude oil closed flat after some profit-taking. The overall […]
Goldman Sachs Sees Upside Risk to $90 Per Barrel Crude Price Forecast
October 25, 2021
Energy prices rose on Friday, except for ULSD which fell slightly for the nearby futures trading month. WTI crude oil rose for the 9th straight week which is a new record going back to 1983. Prices continue to rally due to low crude oil stocks globally, US fracking staying low, and […]
Chinese Intervention Pressures Energy Prices
October 22, 2021
China’s intervention in the coal market sent the price down 11% in yesterday’s trading. Natural gas prices in China also were under selling pressure. This spilled over into the other energy markets. Also helping the selling in the US was a warmer weather outlook. The US National Weather Service winter […]
Credit Suisse Says Oil Price Risks Have Switched to the Upside
October 19, 2021
Energy prices closed mixed in yesterday’s trading after being significantly higher in the early morning trading hours. Negative news out of China that their economic growth slowed to a GDP of just 4.9% in Q3 down from 7.9% in Q2 due to a slowdown in construction activity and factory output […]
Crude Oil Futures Hit Three-Year High
October 18, 2021
The Baker Hughes Rig Count was up 12 crude oil rigs to a total of 445 and last year at this time there were 205 oil rigs in operation. Crude oil futures hit fresh three-year highs on Friday. Brent crude oil traded above $85 per barrel and WTI traded back […]
Propane Stock Levels Remain Low
October 15, 2021
The DOE inventory report said that crude oil stocks were up 6.09 million barrels to a total of 426.975 and last year there were 489.109 million barrels and a 62.134 deficit. Cushing, Okla., crude stocks were down 1.968 million barrels to a total of 33.551 million and last year there […]
UBS Raises Oil Price Forecast
October 14, 2021
The API report came out a day late and said that crude oil stocks were up 5.2 million barrels, gasoline stocks were down 4.6 million barrels and distillates were down 2.7. Cushing crude oil stocks were down 2.8 million barrels. UBS in a research note to clients said they have […]
Could Rising Prices Hurt Demand?
October 13, 2021
The API and DOE inventory reports are both delayed one day due to the Columbus Day Holiday on Monday. The EIA in a bulletin put out last week on propane and said that conditions were ripe for a supply squeeze this winter given low inventories. Flattish supply and resilient demand […]