Energy Futures Tumbling Again to Speculator's Chagrin

Diesel futures are leading the energy complex lower for a 2nd straight day and have dropped 24 cents from Friday’s highs. In total, ULSD futures are down 39 cents from the highs set last Tuesday, and the bulls are now in rally-or-else territory as the 6-week-old trend line is suddenly under pressure. The moves for RBOB have been less dramatic, with gasoline prices “only” dropping 11 cents since Friday morning’s highs, which leaves more room to fall before gasoline threatens its weekly trend-lines.

The big selloff looks like it will have several hedge funds wishing for a do-over after adding to their bets on higher fuel prices last week. The big 5 NYMEX and ICE contracts all saw healthy increases in long positions held by money managers in the latest report from the CFTC, while Brent, WTI and ULSD contracts also saw heavy short covering, just before those bets on lower prices would have paid off.  

Open interest in crude and refined product contracts saw another week of healthy increases, making it appear that the recent reduction in volatility has more traders getting comfortable returning to the petroleum space after many bailed out during the chaotic trading in 2022.

The timing of this latest pullback in diesel prices is particularly curious given that we’re now less than a week away from the highly anticipated embargos on Russian distillates taking effect.  European imports of Russian diesel have surged in recent weeks to get supplies in before the restrictions take place, which may be causing some short-term excess supply, although longer term there are still major concerns about distillate supplies globally.

There’s another winter storm warning issued to oil and gas pipeline operators in Texas this week, but the freezing temperatures aren’t expected to extend south into the refinery zone along the Gulf Coast, so we should not see a widespread impact from this system like we did in December.   

A study published by the Environmental Integrity Project is getting a fair amount of press as it highlights the water pollution caused by US oil refineries and the failure of the EPA to enforce the Clean Water Act.  The study could end up being a catalyst that forces the EPA to update its 40-year-old standards for wastewater disposal or may be ignored if higher fuel prices become a bigger news story again this year.

Baker Hughes reported a drop of 4 oil rigs drilling in the US last week, offset for a 2nd straight week by an increase in natural gas drilling rigs. Notable this week was that the decline in oil drilling was almost all in waters off the Louisiana coast, while the Permian basin saw a net increase of 3 rigs. 

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