Large Inventory Draws Under Pressure
Large inventory draws helped energy prices recover from a heavy wave of early selling Wednesday, but they’re under pressure again to start Thursday’s session as doubts linger about the sustainability of those improving fundamentals.
There’s no doubt that hurricane Delta had a large impact on last week’s numbers reported by the DOE as nearly 20% of refining capacity and essentially all of the oil production in the Gulf of Mexico were in the storm’s path. Now that Delta has passed and damage appears to be minimal (P66 confirmed restart of its Lake Charles facility yesterday) there seems to be much more to worry about with demand than there is with supply.
Diesel inventories saw their biggest weekly decline in 17 years as refiners made sharp cuts in output thanks to both weak margins and a major hurricane, while consumption held steady thanks in large part to harvest demand peaking across the Midwest. That was some good news for refiners, and helped ULSD prices erase the heavy selling from earlier in the morning. The bad news is inventories are still closer to record highs than to average levels, and the cuts in distillate yield aren’t easily sustainable.
U.S. diesel production reached its lowest level since the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey three years ago. While some of the decline is due to shutdowns ahead of Delta, there is also a real concern that the glut of distillates will continue to weigh on refiners for some time. As the charts below show, refiners are already stretching their product mix to levels we haven’t seen in 20 years as gasoline demand and margins have rebounded, while distillates languish, and there’s not much else they’ll be able to do besides cut run rates completely.
Gasoline inventories are back in a normal pattern, holding below 2019 levels and their five year seasonal average for a second week, even though demand pulled estimates dipped and remain nearly one million barrels/day below where they should be this time of year. Refiners are stretching to maximize gasoline yields just in time for the seasonal demand slowdown, which might make for a sloppy market this winter.
The refinery formerly known as Hovensa, which used to have a strong influence on NYH prices before being shuttered in 2012 due to weak economics, has been struggling to restart for a variety of reasons after new owners took over. A Reuters report this morning suggests that those new owners are now stuck between needing to start the facility this year to avoid losing its crude supplier, and an oversupplied market that would mean operating at a loss.
One of the two storm systems being watched by the NHC is slightly better organized today and is given 40% odds of developing, but is in a location that suggests it will stay offshore and not threaten the U.S. coastline. The other system is in a more dangerous position in the Caribbean that could move north into the Gulf of Mexico, but it’s still only given 20% odds of developing.
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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.