Market Commentary

The Baker Hughes Rig Count on Friday showed the oil rigs fell by 53 to a total of 325 rigs. Oil rigs are down 358 (52%) in the last seven weeks. Last year at this time there were 807 oil rigs a difference of 482 rigs. The impact of this […]

According to a Reuters survey, OPEC’s output in April increased to the highest level since March of 2019. Output by the 14-member group in April averaged 30.32 million barrels per day. The largest increase in supply came from Saudi Arabia, which produces a record 11.3 million barrels per day. The […]

The inventory report released yesterday is giving support to the market as there was a smaller build to crude stocks than expected, a slowing down of the rate that Cushing is filling up, an increase in the barrels going into refineries, and some pickup in demand for refined fuels. This […]

The API inventory report put out yesterday did show big builds in crude and distillates but a surprise draw in gasoline stocks which led some to believe that maybe gasoline demand may be coming back after the lock downs. The report called crude oil stocks up 10 million barrels and […]

Crude oil was helped to trade lower yesterday by a growing fear of owning the front month June WTI crude oil contract and the ongoing concern that storage is full. Many trading companies are both asking and forcing their clients to get out of the front month June contract for […]

The Baker Hughes Rig count showed that oil rigs were down 60 to a total of 378 oil rigs. Last year at this time total rigs were at 805 a 427 rig difference. The rig count has fallen drastically in the last few weeks and a decline in production is […]

The reports continue to talk about storage getting full at a very rapid pace and the actions that will be taken by OPEC+ starting May 1st are not near enough and they will likely have to do something prior to that date. Nigeria has shut down its crude production because […]

The inventory report from the private firm API was released yesterday and it did show another round of big builds to inventory. Crude oil stocks were up 13.2 million barrels and the stocks of crude oil at Cushing, Oklahoma the NYMEX WTI crude oil futures contract deliver point were up […]

The headlines and stories on TV were all about the collapse in the energy market and reports that this was the first time WTI crude oil future had traded negative. There had been talk of single digit crude oil prices, but no one saw negative $40 dollars per barrel coming. […]

The Baker Hughes Rig Count released Friday called oil rigs down 66 to a total of 438 rigs. This was the fastest decline since March of 2015. Last year at this time there were 828 oil rigs in operation. Crude oil is getting sold off hard today as global storage […]

WTI crude oil closed at an 18 year low yesterday slightly below the $20 major support level. This was the result of a bearish OPEC monthly report put out yesterday, a bearish International Energy Agency monthly report released Wednesday, and a very bearish EIA weekly petroleum inventory report released Wednesday. […]

The inventory report put out by the private firm API was released yesterday afternoon and it called crude oil stocks up 13.1 million barrels. This compares with the estimates for today DOE report to showed crude stocks up 11.7 million barrels. The API called gasoline stocks up 2.2 million barrels […]