Damage To Plants Exceeding Expectations
Gasoline prices touched fresh 18 month highs overnight, and are holding on to gains in the early going. Diesel prices are also ticking higher, but are lagging the strength in gasoline, even as the fundamentals for diesel look stronger than gasoline near term.
Tuesday’s session was highlighted by a heavy wave of selling in the early going that proved short-lived and gave way to gains after an hour or so. U.S. stock indices also staged a large intra-day rally after heavy morning selling, thanks in part to some calming words from the FED Chair who was testifying before the Senate banking committee. While the correlation between stocks and energy price moves daily remains fairly strong (near 80% for the S&P 500 and WTI and ULSD contracts) the timing was mismatched as energy contracts rallied early and equities later in the day, that suggests petroleum prices are still being driven primarily by refinery news this week.
While significant progress is being made in restarting shut down plants across the country, several plants are discovering that restarts will take a month or so due to damage exceeding original expectations.
While refined product supplies in general are tight across Texas and some adjoining markets, it looks like diesel is the bigger concern for outages in the short term. We’ve already seen spot to rack price spreads for diesel rally to their widest levels in more than a year this week, and a supply outage at the terminal in Odessa, TX was reported Tuesday evening. Complicating tight supplies, diesel demand across the U.S., based on EIA calculations, has been above average for this time of year, as economic recovery and some shift in consumption patterns (think delivery trucks) combine to offset the negative impacts of COVID.
The diesel strength is not just limited to the Gulf Coast. Group 3 ULSD basis differentials reached a three year high yesterday, even as demand in the region slumped dramatically due to the cold snap last week, and the neighboring Chicago market is seeing similar gains. With the refineries in KS and OK that were forced to shut units due to that storm all restarting this week, and the Explorer pipeline operating normally, it seems the price rally is due to barrels being diverted to other markets across the south, rather than moving north to the Midwest, which in turn forces buyers to pay up in order to find replacement barrels.
The API reported a large draw in diesel stocks last week, even as gasoline and crude stocks saw small builds. The EIA report this morning is expected to show some wild numbers as the refinery and oil production shutdowns will be showing up in the numbers for the first time.
HollyFrontier released their 4th quarter earnings this morning, reporting a loss of $117 million for the quarter due largely to "weak demand for gasoline and diesel coupled with compressed crude differentials.” The company did highlight its balance sheet strength and “ambitious” capital and turnaround plans as demand recovers.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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The Energy Bulls Are On The Run This Morning, Lead By Heating And Crude Oil Futures
The energy bulls are on the run this morning, lead by heating and crude oil futures. The November HO contract is trading ~7.5 cents per gallon (2.3%) higher while WTI is bumped $1.24 per barrel (1.3%) so far in pre-market trading. Their gasoline counterpart is rallying in sympathy with .3% gains to start the day.
The October contracts for both RBOB and HO expire today, and while trading action looks to be pretty tame so far, it isn’t a rare occurrence to see some big price swings on expiring contracts as traders look to close their positions. It should be noted that the only physical market pricing still pricing their product off of October futures, while the rest of the nation already switched to the November contract over the last week or so.
We’ve now got two named storms in the Atlantic, Philippe and Rina, but both aren’t expected to develop into major storms. While most models show both storms staying out to sea, the European model for weather forecasting shows there is a possibility that Philippe gets close enough to the Northeast to bring rain to the area, but not much else.
The term “$100 oil” is starting to pop up in headlines more and more mostly because WTI settled above the $90 level back on Tuesday, but partially because it’s a nice round number that’s easy to yell in debates or hear about from your father-in-law on the golf course. While the prospect of sustained high energy prices could be harmful to the economy, its important to note that the current short supply environment is voluntary. The spigot could be turned back on at any point, which could topple oil prices in short order.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
Gasoline And Crude Oil Futures Are All Trading Between .5% And .8% Lower To Start The Day
The energy complex is sagging this morning with the exception of the distillate benchmark as the prompt month trading higher by about a penny. Gasoline and crude oil futures are all trading between .5% and .8% lower to start the day, pulling back after WTI traded above $95 briefly in the overnight session.
There isn’t much in the way of news this morning with most still citing the expectation for tight global supply, inflation and interest rates, and production cuts by OPEC+.
As reported by the Department of Energy yesterday, refinery runs dropped in all PADDs, except for PADD 3, as we plug along into the fall turnaround season. Crude oil inventories drew down last week, despite lower runs and exports, and increased imports, likely due to the crude oil “adjustment” the EIA uses to reconcile any missing barrels from their calculated estimates.
Diesel remains tight in the US, particularly in PADD 5 (West Coast + Nevada, Arizona) but stockpiles are climbing back towards their 5-year seasonal range. It unsurprising to see a spike in ULSD imports to the region since both Los Angeles and San Francisco spot markets are trading at 50+ cent premiums to the NYMEX. We’ve yet to see such relief on the gasoline side of the barrel, and we likely won’t until the market switches to a higher RVP.