Market Commentary

The market was optimistic about rising China fuel demand after the world’s largest importer of oil reported data showed a 3% rise in 2020 of refinery output. This was a record high.    One executive order from President Biden featured the cancellation of the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline […]

The energy markets are trading higher this morning without much news. It is Friday and it is likely traders are covering their positions for the weekend. They are likely getting things done early so they can rest easy as the craziness of the markets on all the Game Stop activities […]

The DOE inventory report showed that crude oil stocks were down 9.91 million barrels putting total stocks at 476.65 million. Last year at this time there were 431.654 million barrels. It is true that crude stocks have come down by a large amount over the last six months, roughly 27 […]

API said that crude stocks were up 2.6 million barrels and the outlook for Friday DOE numbers are a decline of 1.2 million barrels. Gasoline stocks were up 1.1 million barrels and the outlook are for then to be up 2.8 on Friday. Distillate stocks were up 816,000 barrels and […]

Today is the last day to do a forward contract that will start in February. Tomorrow contracts will start in March and be offered out until February 2022. The news around the market seems quiet this morning as it appears more focused on the inauguration. It has been reported that […]

The International Energy Agency lowered forecast for global oil demand as more lockdowns to contain the pandemic tempered the recovery expected this year, according to a Reuters report. “The global vaccine roll-out is putting fundamentals on a stronger trajectory for the year, with both supply and demand shifting back to […]

Just a reminder that the energy markets close at noon today and no forward contracts can be done after that time. Contracting ends at 12:00 noon today Monday 1-18-2021. With the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday today, most traders are off, and the market should be pretty lightly traded. Per […]

China’s crude oil imports reached record levels in Q3 and Q4 of 2020 with total oil imports rising 7% for 2020. Refineries increased output  in the low price environment and stockpiled fuel. China is now again locking down cities in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19. As mentioned […]

Crude stock were down 3.25 million barrels right on market expectations, so this number was seen as neutral. Gasoline stocks were up 4.4 million and distillates were up 4.79 million, which were both more than the market expected. Crude oil production remained flat at 11 million barrels. On the bearish […]

Crude oil stocks on the API were called down 5.8 million barrels and the crude oil stocks at Cushing, Ok were down 232,000 barrels. The average estimates for today’s DOE report is for stocks to be down 2.3 million barrels, per the Reuters survey. Gasoline stocks in the API report […]

Citi Research increased its average 2021 Brent crude price forecast by $5 to $59 per barrel following Saudi Arabia’s vow to cut output by more than expected. The bank raised its quarterly Brent price forecast by $5 per barrel through the first quarter of 2022, when it expects Brent to […]

The bullish energy market continued last week as price rose to their highest level in almost a year and gained about 8% on the week. The big news from last week was the surprise Saudi Arabian  announcement that they would cut 1 million barrels per day in February and March […]