Industry Continues To Grapple With Fallout From Ida
Energy futures are ticking higher this morning, recovering from modest losses to start September as the industry continues to grapple with the fallout from Ida, and uncertainty heading into the last weekend of the driving season.
Ida continues to wreak havoc, 4.5 days after first making landfall. We’re seeing dramatic images of flooding in Philadelphia and New York City and flash flood warnings continue north to Boston. No word yet if any of the few remaining refineries in PADD 1 were impacted by the storm, but given the widespread river flooding it seems at the very least we’ll see some delays in barge traffic over the next several days.
Most of the refineries in Louisiana remain offline and recovery efforts have been hampered by a combination of lack of power and flooded roads. The two largest plants, Exxon Baton Rouge and Marathon Garyville are both reportedly attempting to restart this week. The success or failure of those startups will be critical to determine how long the local fuel shortages last, and whether or not they expand to other states since the Plantation line will need their supply to continue operating.
Yesterday’s DOE report was highlighted by total US petroleum demand smashing its all-time high, nearly 500,000 barrels/day above the previous record set in the summer of 2018. Perhaps even more impressive is that record was set despite gasoline and jet fuel demand remaining below pre-pandemic levels, which is a testament to the strong growth in propane/propylene and the “other oils” category which now regularly surpass distillates as the 2nd largest demand category behind gasoline.
US Crude oil production ticked up to a post-pandemic high of 11.5 million barrels/day, but will drop more than 1 million barrels next week due to the Gulf of Mexico shutdowns.
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View AllThe 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.
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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.