Futures Contracts Trading Around 1%
It’s a quietly soft start to the week for energy futures with most futures contracts trading down around 1%, with a couple of bearish headlines from OPEC members getting credit for the early wave of selling.
Iran reported a new oil discovery of more than 50 billion barrels over the weekend, which would increase the country’s proven reserves by 1/3. Then again, this is the same country that said they weren’t trying to build a nuclear weapon, and didn’t attack Saudi Oil infrastructure, or numerous oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, so any claims seem to be met with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Mid-continent basis values for diesel have spiked 8 cents or more in the past week as the Keystone pipeline shutdown threatens to force refinery cuts if it’s not solved soon, and as the drawn out harvest season saw inventories in the Group 3 market nearly cut in half over the past 2 months. As the chart below shows, that spike in values is likely to bring a new surge of barrels up from the gulf coast, just in time for demand to dry up once again.
Money managers are getting more optimistic, increasing net length in the big 4 petroleum contracts last week. A large increase in RBOB length – just in time for the seasonal demand slowdown – seems to be the most notable move, as speculative bets on higher gasoline prices are now above their 5 year range.
Baker Hughes reported another weekly decline in oil rigs. The total rig count is now approaching a 3 year low – even as US production holds steady at an all-time high as the network appears to be refocusing and consolidating to deal with a challenging cash flow environment.
This is data deluge week as the EIA, IEA and OPEC will all release their monthly reports. Most of the agencies have been taking a bearish stance lately, thanks to supply resilience and demand pessimism, so it will be worth watching to see if the new optimism in the speculative crowd shows up in the data.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk graphs.
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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.