Energy Markets Trying To Figure Out Potential Impacts Of A Major Hurricane
It’s already been a volatile week of trading and it’s only Tuesday morning. Equity markets around the world are being roiled by trade concerns and rising interest rates, while energy markets are trying to figure out the potential impacts of a major hurricane and refinery fire.
After dropping nearly 2% to start the week, refined products rallied back to positive levels as news broke of an explosion and fire at Irving Oil’s 320mb/day refinery in St. John New Brunswick, Canada’s largest refinery, which is a major supplier of gasoline and diesel to the East Coast.
It’s unclear yet what impact that may have on fuel supplies and prices as it’s still unclear which units were effected, and how long they may be out of service. New York harbor basis values largely shrugged off the news since the largest units at the plant were already off-line for scheduled maintenance.
As the charts below show, New England (PADD 1A) may see the most impact from any downtime at the Irving refinery given its proximity to the refinery, relatively small size (only 7% of total PADD 1 gasoline stocks) and starting inventory levels that are within their seasonal range, albeit at the top end. PADDs 1B & 1C meanwhile are well above their previous 5 year ranges for gasoline inventories, and given their larger total capacity, which could explain the muted reaction in the NY Harbor trading hub.
While the East Coast of Canada was dealing with the shock of a major refinery issue, Western Canadian crude oil prices traded down to the $30/barrel mark for the first time since December 2016 as refinery maintenance in the US and a lack of pipeline capacity forces prices to record discounts of nearly $45/barrel to WTI and $55 less than Brent. For perspective, the last time WCS was trading at $30, WTI was at $44 and Brent was at $45, compared to $74 and $85 today.
Hurricane Michael is now a Category 2 storm, and is expected to become a Category 3 storm before making landfall along the Florida panhandle Wednesday. While several off-shore oil rigs have been evacuated as a precaution as the storm nears, its path keeps it far enough east that it should not have a lasting impact on energy supply infrastructure. The storm could have a larger impact on demand as it targets Florida, Georgia, and perhaps some areas of the Carolinas still recovering from Hurricane Florence.
The IEA continued with its series of analytical reports focusing on “blind spots” in the global energy system with a report on renewables Monday. The report estimated that renewables would account for 40% of total global energy consumption growth in the next 5 years, and while Solar capacity will see the largest increases, biofuels will remain the largest segment of renewable energy supply.
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Refined Products Are Moving Lower For A 2nd Day After Coming Under Heavy Selling Pressure In Wednesday’s Session
Refined products are moving lower for a 2nd day after coming under heavy selling pressure in Wednesday’s session. Rapidly increasing refinery runs and sluggish diesel demand both seemed to weigh heavily on product prices, while crude oil is still benefitting from the disruption of exports from Iraq. Prices remain range-bound, so expect more choppy back and forth action in the weeks ahead.
US oil inventories saw a large decline last week, despite another 13-million barrels of oil being found in the weekly adjustment figure, as imports dropped to a 2-year low, and refinery runs cranked up in most regions as many facilities return from spring maintenance.
The refining utilization percentage jumped to its highest level of the year but remains overstated since the new 250,000 barrels/day of output from Exxon’s Beaumont facility still isn’t being counted in the official capacity figures. If you’re shocked that the government report could have such a glaring omission, then you haven’t been paying attention to the Crude Adjustment figure this year, and the artificially inflated petroleum demand estimates that have come with it.
Speaking of which, we’re now just a couple of months away from WTI Midland crude oil being included in the Dated Brent index, and given the uncertainty in the US over what should be classified as oil vs condensate, expect some confusion once those barrels start being included in the international benchmark as well.
Diesel demand continues to hover near the lowest levels we’ve seen for the first quarter in the past 20+ years, dropping sharply again last week after 2 straight weeks of increases had some markets hoping that the worst was behind us. Now that we’re moving out of the heating season, we’ll soon get more clarity on how on road and industrial demand is holding up on its own in the weekly figures that have been heavily influenced by the winter that wasn’t across large parts of the country.
Speaking of which, the EIA offered another mea culpa of sorts Wednesday by comparing its October Winter Fuels outlook to the current reality, which shows a huge reduction in heating demand vs expectations just 6-months ago.
It’s not just domestic consumption of diesel that’s under pressure, exports have fallen below their 5-year average as buyers in South America are buying more Russian barrels, and European nations are getting more from new facilities in the Middle East.
Take a look at the spike in PADD 5 gasoline imports last week to get a feel for how the region may soon be forced to adjust to rapidly increasing refining capacity in Asia, while domestic facilities come under pressure.
Crude Oil Prices Are Trying To Lead Another Rally In Energy Futures This Morning
Crude oil prices are trying to lead another rally in energy futures this morning, while ULSD prices are resisting the pull higher. Stocks are pointed higher in the early going as no news is seen as good news in the banking crisis.
WTI prices have rallied by $10/barrel in the past 7 trading days, even with a $5 pullback last Thursday and Friday. The recovery puts WTI back in the top half of its March trading range but there’s still another $7 to go before the highs of the month are threatened.
Yesterday’s API report seems to be aiding the continued strength in crude, with a 6 million barrel inventory decline estimated by the industry group last week. That report also showed a decline of 5.9 million barrels of gasoline which is consistent with the spring pattern of drawdowns as we move through the RVP transition, while distillates saw a build of 550k barrels. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its normal time this morning.
Diesel prices seems to be reacting both to the small build in inventories – which is yet another data point of the weak demand so far this year for distillates – and on the back of crumbling natural gas prices that settled at their lowest levels in 2.5 years yesterday and fell below $2/million BTU this morning.
While diesel futures are soft, rack markets across the Southwestern US remain unusually tight, with spreads vs spot markets approaching $1/gallon in several cases as local refiners go through maintenance and pipeline capacity for resupply remains limited. The tightest supply in the region however remains the Phoenix CBG boutique gasoline grade which is going for $1.20/gallon over spots as several of the few refineries that can make that product are having to perform maintenance at the same time.
French refinery strikes continue for a 4th week and are estimated to be keeping close to 1 million barrels/day of fuel production offline, which is roughly 90% of French capacity and almost 1% of total global capacity. That disruption is having numerous ripple effects on crude oil markets in the Atlantic basin, while the impact on refined product supplies and prices remains much more contained than it was when this happened just 5 months ago.
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