Market Commentary

OPEC+ agreed to increase production by just 100,000 bpd which is nothing really, but they did up the number. The market has rallied and now sold off to roughly the same price level when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The market is now looking for the next catalyst to […]

The average estimates for today’s DOE inventory report from the Bloomberg survey are for crude to be down 798,00 barrels, gasoline down 1.014 million barrels and distillates up 740,000 barrels. In propane, weak domestic demand has led to larger than expected inventory builds and, despite growth in domestic production, propane […]

JP Morgan said its Brent crude oil price forecast continues to call for a stabilization in price towards the low $100s in the second half of 2022 and the high 90s in 2023. It said “our oil strategists’ flag that the risk of a recession is not yet priced into […]

The API report estimated crude stocks down 4 million barrels, gasoline stocks down 1.1 million barrels and distillates stocks down 554,000 barrels. The International Monetary Fund cut global growth forecast again on Tuesday, warning the downside risks from high inflation and the Ukrainian war were materializing and could push the […]

Gazprom has reduced rates on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 20% of normal after the restart from maintenance just a few days ago. The line was first at 40% but is now cut back to 20% because Gazprom says they are waiting on a turbine that was repaired in […]

US crude oil inventories are 6% below the five year average, gasoline inventories are 3% below the five year average, and distillates are 23% below the five year average. Propane inventories are currently 16% below the five year average. The Baker Hughes Rig Count had oil rigs unchanged on the […]

The energy markets were down hard in early trading but did rally back off their lows. WTI crude oil settled $1.76 off its low. RBOB gas was $0.1246 cents off its low of the day and ULSD was $0.1673 cents of its low of the day. Lower demand, concerns about […]

Crude oil inventories at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for the NYMEX WTI futures contracts, are at 21.6 million barrels, the lowest seasonal level since 2014. Stocks have not been this low since 2008, when front-month WTI crude prices were at $122 (or $170 per barrel adjusted for inflation). Energy […]

President Joe Biden met with officials from Saudi Arabia on Friday, and the bottom line is that it did not yield any action to produce more crude oil. This has again increased the concerns about supply and should offer some support to prices. Of course, both sides are reporting a […]

The EIA inventory report said that crude oil stocks were up 3.25 million barrels, gasoline stocks up 5.83 million barrels and distillates up 2.67 million barrels. Builds across the board is a welcome thing but take the over six million barrels SPR release and crude stocks over all are down. […]

The average estimates for today’s EIA inventory update are calling for crude oil supplies to be down 469,000 barrels, gasoline supplies down 1.008 million barrels and distillate supplies up 792,000 barrels.  The API inventory report put out yesterday said that crude oil stocks were up 4.8 million barrels, gasoline stocks […]

With the Federal Reserve expected to keep raising interest rates, open interest in NYMEX futures fell on July 7 to its lowest level since October 2015 as investors cut back on risky assets. Speculative longs have liquidated about 20% of their positions. The next round of the Consumer Price Index […]