Have Fuel Prices Found A Floor?
Have fuel prices found a floor?
After dropping 60 cents in a week and a half, diesel prices have bounced 17 cents in the past 24 hours, and gasoline prices are up nearly 20 cents since bottoming out last Thursday. While crude oil prices have also bounced, WTI is up $5/barrel from Thursday’s lows, they’re not keeping pace with the recovery in refined products, suggesting this move may be driven by spread buyers as we head into the fall maintenance & storm seasons with a refinery network that’s more vulnerable than it’s been in decades.
There isn’t much in the way of a headline to pin the sudden reversal in diesel prices on, and in fact European natural gas prices are pulling back as inventories have recovered in recent days, which would tend to act as a drag on diesel prices. This suggests the move may be more technical in nature, as trading programs and some humans see the latest wave of selling as a good buying opportunity after the head and shoulders and descending triangle patterns that foreshadowed lower prices have now been completed. The first big test for the bulls to decide if they’re serious about this rally is to get diesel prices back north of $3.50, and gasoline prices back above $3.
The latest round of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear ambitions ended without any sign of progress, reducing the odds that Iranian oil exports will legally re-enter the world market.
The national hurricane center still gives a 40% chance the storm moving over the Atlantic will get a name this week, and the long range forecasts suggest there will be more storms coming soon as the hurricane season reaches its peak a month from now.
HF Sinclair proved that the previous year was a great time to be buying refineries, joining its US peers reporting huge profits for the 2nd quarter. While the company’s newly acquired facilities netted nearly $30/barrel after operating costs, the renewable diesel operations showed heavy losses for the quarter, suggesting that turning soybeans into motorfuel may not be the field of dreams many have been hoping for, even with nearly $5/gallon in various government tax credits and subsidies and diesel prices at elevated levels.
Speaking of which, the spending bill passed in the Senate this weekend includes the extension of several existing biofuel credits, and the addition of several new credits to encourage more production. One detail that’s already expected to have unforeseen consequences is that Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) will get $.25-$.75/gallon more credits than Renewable Diesel, which will likely mean a shift by some producers away from on-road fuels given the limited feedstocks available to make fuel out of food.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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View AllGasoline Futures Are Leading The Energy Complex Higher This Morning With 1.5% Gains So Far In Pre-Market Trading
Gasoline futures are leading the energy complex higher this morning with 1.5% gains so far in pre-market trading. Heating oil futures are following close behind, exchanging hands 4.5 cents higher than Friday’s settlement (↑1.3%) while American and European crude oil futures trade modestly higher in sympathy.
The world’s largest oil cartel is scheduled to meet this Wednesday but is unlikely they will alter their supply cuts regimen. The months-long rally in oil prices, however, has some thinking Saudi Arabia might being to ease their incremental, voluntary supply cuts.
Tropical storm Rina has dissolved over the weekend, leaving the relatively tenured Philippe the sole point of focus in the Atlantic storm basin. While he is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by the end of this week, most projections keep Philippe out to sea, with a non-zero percent chance he makes landfall in Nova Scotia or Maine.
Unsurprisingly the CFTC reported a 6.8% increase in money manager net positions in WTI futures last week as speculative bettors piled on their bullish bets. While $100 oil is being shoutedfromeveryrooftop, we’ve yet to see that conviction on the charts: open interest on WTI futures is far below that of the last ~7 years.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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.