After Another Big Rally Wednesday, Energy Prices Are Seeing A Quiet Start To Trading Thursday

Market TalkThursday, Mar 24 2022
Pivotal Week For Price Action

After another big rally Wednesday, energy prices are seeing a quiet start to trading Thursday, with little news so far to give us the expected 20 cent swings we’ve become accustomed to in March. There are multiple summits taking place in Europe this week that will decide the next steps in the efforts to end the war in Ukraine, and the (relative) lack of price movement so far today seems to be the market taking a wait and see approach to those meetings.

Yesterday’s DOE report continued to provide evidence that there simply is not a good short term solution to the global supply crunch, but also that the US is in a much better position than most other countries these days.

Gulf Coast refiners are doing their part to make up for a lack of refined products in other markets, increasing run rates for a 5th straight week, and surpassing 8.7 million barrels/day for just the third time since the COVID lockdowns forced plants to reduce rates, and helped drive the biggest decrease in refining capacity in 40 years. How many would like to ask for a do-over on shuttering those plants in light of recent events? The other notable phenomenon is that PADD 3 run rates surpassed 55% of total US throughput rates as the Gulf Coast states continue to grab market share from those that have declared war on their refiners and are now paying a huge price as a result.   

Speaking of which, take a look at the huge drop in diesel imports over the past two weeks in the charts below to see a good graphical representation of the scramble for importers to find distillates on cargo ships to replace barrels coming from Russia, regardless of their original destination. The US still produces 10-15% more diesel than it consumes every day, but domestic markets have to compete with international buyers in the coastal markets, and for the Gulf Coast refiners, it often is more cost effective to send diesel to parts of Europe and South America than it is to some parts of the US thanks to the Jones Act and CARB regulations. 

Damage assessments are underway at the Black Sea Oil port that transports roughly 1% of global supply after Russian officials claimed it was shuttered after a storm. It’s hard to know (even before they invaded Ukraine) what’s real and what’s propaganda, but there are signs that the pipeline feeding the port is still operational.

An EIA note this morning predicts that US renewable diesel production will surpass biodiesel production this year, as new plants come online, and the feedstock wars are won by RD as it is not only a drop-in replacement for ULSD, but also commands more environmental subsidies. The report also shows that production growth for both RD and Bio is expected to slow dramatically after the race to convert during the aforementioned COVID refinery shuttering, and the combined total of the two products will only reach 8% of total distillate output in 2050, vs 6% today.  So much for Net Zero.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk, including all charts from the Weekly DOE Report.

Market Talk Update 3.24.22

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Pivotal Week For Price Action
Market TalkThursday, Mar 28 2024

Energy Markets Are Ticking Modestly Higher Heading Into The Easter Weekend With Crude Oil Prices Leading The Way Up About $1.25/Barrel Early Thursday Morning

Energy markets are ticking modestly higher heading into the Easter Weekend with crude oil prices leading the way up about $1.25/barrel early Thursday morning, while gasoline prices are up around 2.5 cents and ULSD futures are about a penny.

Today is the last trading day for April HO and RBOB futures, an unusually early expiration due to the month ending on a holiday weekend. None of the pricing agencies will be active tomorrow since the NYMEX and ICE contracts are completely shut, so most rack prices published tonight will carry through Monday.

Gasoline inventories broke from tradition and snapped a 7 week decline as Gulf Coast supplies increased, more than offsetting the declines in PADDs 1, 2 and 5. With gulf coast refiners returning from maintenance and cranking out summer grade gasoline, the race is now officially on to move their excess through the rest of the country before the terminal and retail deadlines in the next two months. While PADD 3 run rates recover, PADD 2 is expected to see rates decline in the coming weeks with 2 Chicago-area refineries scheduled for planned maintenance, just a couple of weeks after BP returned from 7 weeks of unplanned repairs.

Although terminal supplies appear to be ample around the Baltimore area, we have seen linespace values for shipping gasoline on Colonial tick higher in the wake of the tragic bridge collapse as some traders seem to be making a small bet that the lack of supplemental barge resupply may keep inventories tight until the barge traffic can move once again. The only notable threat to refined product supplies is from ethanol barge traffic which will need to be replaced by truck and rail options, but so far that doesn’t seem to be impacting availability at the rack. Colonial did announce that they would delay the closure of its underutilized Baltimore north line segment that was scheduled for April 1 to May 1 out of an “abundance of caution”.

Ethanol inventories reached a 1-year high last week as output continues to hold above the seasonal range as ethanol distillers seem to be betting that expanded use of E15 blends will be enough to offset sluggish gasoline demand. A Bloomberg article this morning also highlights why soybeans are beginning to displace corn in the subsidized food to fuel race.

Flint Hills reported a Tuesday fire at its Corpus Christi West facility Wednesday, although it’s unclear if that event will have a material impact on output after an FCC unit was “stabilized” during the fire. While that facility isn’t connected to Colonial, and thus doesn’t tend to have an impact on USGC spot pricing, it is a key supplier to the San Antonio, Austin and DFW markets, so any downtime may be felt at those racks.

Meanwhile, P66 reported ongoing flaring at its Borger TX refinery due to an unknown cause. That facility narrowly avoided the worst wildfires in state history a few weeks ago but is one of the frequent fliers on the TCEQ program with upsets fairly common in recent years.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk, including all charts from the Weekly DOE Report.

Pivotal Week For Price Action
Pivotal Week For Price Action
Market TalkWednesday, Mar 27 2024

Most Energy Contracts Are Ticking Lower For A 2nd Day After A Trickle Of Selling Picked Up Steam Tuesday

Most energy contracts are ticking lower for a 2nd day after a trickle of selling picked up steam Tuesday. ULSD futures are down a dime from Monday’s highs and RBOB futures are down 7 cents.

Diesel prices continue to look like the weak link in the energy chain, with futures coming within 1 point of their March lows overnight, setting up a test of the December lows around $2.48 if that resistance breaks down. Despite yesterday’s slide, RBOB futures still look bullish on the weekly charts, with a run towards the $3 mark still looking like a strong possibility in the next month or so.

The API reported crude stocks increased by more than 9 million barrels last week, while distillates were up 531,000 and gasoline stocks continued their seasonal decline falling by 4.4 million barrels. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its normal time this morning.

RIN values have recovered to their highest levels in 2 months around $.59/RIN for D4 and D6 RINs, even though the recovery rally in corn and soybean prices that had helped lift prices off of the 4 year lows set in February has stalled out. Expectations for more biofuel production to be shut in due to weak economics with lower subsidy values seems to be encouraging the tick higher in recent weeks, although prices are still about $1/RIN lower than this time last year.

Reminder that Friday is one of only 3 annual holidays in which the Nymex is completely shut, so no prices will be published, but it’s not a federal holiday in the US so banks will be open.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.