Market Commentary

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

US oil rigs increased by six to 450 this past week, to their highest level since April 2020. This is from the Baker Hughes Rig Count Report. Crude oil and refined fuels product prices close higher on Friday after reaching a one-month low on Thursday. OPEC+ decided on Thursday in […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]