It’s Been A Wild 24 Hours For Energy And Equity Markets Around The World
It’s been a wild 24 hours for energy and equity markets around the world with central bank action creating ripple effects far and wide, while the war in Ukraine takes a back seat in the headlines, but continues to roil the global supply chain. Gasoline futures hit $3.81 overnight, marking a 50 cent drop from Friday’s high trade, but have since bounced by more than 7 cents off of that support and managed to keep its bullish chart pattern intact for now. Diesel prices meanwhile surged 15 cents during Wednesday’s session, but are giving back most of those gains this morning, seemingly following the lead of the stock market short term.
The FED raised its federal funds target rate by 75 points Wednesday, the first time in 28 years they’ve made an increase of that size. The FED Chair also made it clear that another move of that size in the near future may be necessary to tame inflation that admittedly was worse than the central bank thought possible not long ago. Fed fund futures now show an 80% probability that we’ll see at least 125 points or more of increases in the next 6 months, and several other central banks are following the FED’s lead on raising rates, with the Swiss notably surprising many today with their first increase in 15 years.
After some wild back and forth Wednesday saw stocks finish on a strong note, most equity indices have given back those gains and more overnight, and are threatening a technical breakdown that could lead to much lower prices and many more news photos of the head in hand trader.
The White House sent letters to US refiners, placing blame on them for high gasoline prices and asking them to add back the capacity that was taken offline since the pandemic, which the letter notes several times happened prior to this administration taking control.
The industry responded quickly with numerous letters detailing the hundreds of millions spent in recent years just to maintain the lower capacity levels we see today, and laying out their own plans for the government to help debottleneck parts of the supply chain.
Yesterday’s DOE report showed that US Refiners continue to run at their highest utilization rates of the past 5 years, and several continue to struggle with operational upsets before or after required maintenance, leaving essentially no room to increase further.
So can any of the refineries shut over the past 2 years come back from the dead? Theoretically some can, and the current margin environment is giving the potential for some to consider it, but the complexity of restarting a facility after a long-term shutdown, and the long-term prospects for a world that just a few months ago wanted no more fossil fuels to be processed makes these options a big of a long shot . Certainly not impossible for some, but even if they said yes today, it would be months before any could be making fuel again. See the table below for those that in theory could try to restart.
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Week 48 - US DOE Inventory Recap
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Week 48 - US DOE Inventory Recap
The API Reported Gasoline Inventories Dropped By 898,000 Barrels Last Week
Gasoline and oil prices are attempting to rally for a 2nd straight day, a day ahead of the delayed OPEC meeting, while diesel prices are slipping back into the red following Tuesday’s strong showing.
The API reported gasoline inventories dropped by 898,000 barrels last week, crude inventories declined by 817,000 barrels while distillates saw an increase of 2.8 million barrels. Those inventory stats help explain the early increases for RBOB and WTI while ULSD is trading lower. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its normal time this morning.
A severe storm on the Black Sea is disrupting roughly 2% of the world’s daily oil output and is getting some credit for the bounce in futures, although early reports suggest that this will be a short-lived event.
Chevron reported that its Richmond CA refinery was back online after a power outage Monday night. San Francisco spot diesel basis values rallied more than a dime Tuesday after a big drop on Monday following the news of that refinery being knocked offline.
Just a few days after Scotland’s only refinery announced it would close in 2025, Exxon touted its newest refinery expansion project in the UK Tuesday, with a video detailing how it was ramping up diesel production to reduce imports and possibly allow for SAF production down the road at its Fawley facility.
Ethanol prices continue to slump this week, reaching a 2-year low despite the bounce in gasoline prices as corn values dropped to a 3-year low, and the White House appears to be delaying efforts to shift to E15 in an election year.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
Values For Space On Colonial’s Main Gasoline Line Continue To Drop This Week
The petroleum complex continues to search for a price floor with relatively quiet price action this week suggesting some traders are going to wait and see what OPEC and Friends can decide on at their meeting Thursday.
Values for space on Colonial’s main gasoline line continue to drop this week, with trades below 10 cents/gallon after reaching a high north of 18-cents earlier in the month. Softer gasoline prices in New York seems to be driving the slide as the 2 regional refiners who had been down for extended maintenance both return to service. Diesel linespace values continue to hold north of 17-cents/gallon as East Coast stocks are holding at the low end of their seasonal range while Gulf Coast inventories are holding at average levels.
Reversal coming? Yesterday we saw basis values for San Francisco spot diesel plummet to the lowest levels of the year, but then overnight the Chevron refinery in Richmond was forced to shut several units due to a power outage which could cause those differentials to quickly find a bid if the supplier is forced to become a buyer to replace that output.
Money managers continued to reduce the net length held in crude oil contracts, with both Brent and WTI seeing long liquidation and new short positions added last week. Perhaps most notable from the weekly COT report data is that funds are continuing their counter-seasonal bets on higher gasoline prices. The net length held by large speculators for RBOB is now at its highest level since Labor Day, at a time of year when prices tend to drop due to seasonal demand weakness.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.