Petroleum Futures Higher After An Afternoon Sell-Off In Equity Markets Thursday
The bulls are at it again, pushing petroleum futures higher after an afternoon sell-off in equity markets Thursday seemed to temporarily limit the upward momentum.
ULSD futures are trading higher for a 10th consecutive session, and the bulls hold an undefeated record for 2022 so far. The February contract has added 30 cents in those 10 sessions since the NYE selloff, and if that pace of increase continues, will put diesel prices somewhere around $8/gallon by the end of the year. When you look at it that way, the flashing “overbought” signals on the daily charts make more sense, showing that ULSD is begging for a pullback, but the weekly charts still suggest now that $2.60 was broken, there’s a good chance we’ll see an attempt to rally to the $2.80 range, which happened to be a price floor back in 2014 before prices collapsed.
Most physical diesel markets continue to be much less enthusiastic than futures, with basis values sliding and rack spreads vs spot markets holding well below break-even levels in many markets. The collapse in Midwestern ULSD spreads has opened up the theoretical arbitrage window to bring diesel out of the midcontinent towards the gulf & east coasts, but then again, that would require a truck (presumably with a driver) and roads that aren’t covered in snow or ice, none of which look like a likely option over the next few days.
Winter Storm Izzy is expected to bring heavy snow and ice to a large part of the country this weekend and an extended stretch of cold weather behind it goes a long way to explain why ULSD futures look strong while physical diesel across most of the country that doesn’t need diesel for heating or electricity generation looks weak.
For the most part, the storm is going to hit parts of the US that have winter every year and should not be an unusual event. The biggest concern (for now) is that parts of TN, GA and the Carolinas all could get covered in ice, and they simply aren’t equipped to deal with it. In years past when we’ve seen this type of event, there were numerous terminal closures due to frozen pipes and other damaged equipment just in time for a surge in diesel demand as electricity companies need to supplement their output to keep up with the surge in demand.
Reminder that Monday is MLK Jr. day, so spot markets in the US won’t be assessed and banks will be closed. That means most rack prices will carry through from tonight to Tuesday, and most industry participants will hope that futures don’t have a repeat of the Black Friday or NYE selloffs.
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The Recovery Rally In Energy Markets Continues For A 3rd Day
The recovery rally in energy markets continues for a 3rd day with refined product futures both up more than a dime off of the multi-month lows we saw Wednesday morning. The DJIA broke 40,000 for the first time ever Thursday, and while it pulled back yesterday, US equity futures are suggesting the market will open north of that mark this morning, adding to the sends of optimism in the market.
Despite the bounce in the back half of the week, the weekly charts for both RBOB and ULSD are still painting a bearish outlook with a lower high and lower low set this week unless the early rally this morning can pick up steam in the afternoon. It does seem like the cycle of liquidation from hedge funds has ended however, so it would appear to be less likely that we’ll see another test of technical support near term after this bounce.
Ukraine hit another Russian refinery with a drone strike overnight, sparking a fire at Rosneft’s 240mb/day Tuapse facility on the black sea. That plant was one of the first to be struck by Ukrainian drones back in January and had just completed repairs from that strike in April. The attack was just one part of the largest drone attack to date on Russian energy infrastructure overnight, with more than 100 drones targeting power plants, fuel terminals and two different ports on the Black Sea. I guess that means Ukraine continues to politely ignore the White House request to stop blowing up energy infrastructure in Russia.
Elsewhere in the world where lots of things are being blown up: Several reports of a drone attack in Israel’s largest refining complex (just under 200kbd) made the rounds Thursday, although it remains unclear how much of that is propaganda by the attackers and if any impact was made on production.
The LA market had 2 different refinery upsets Thursday. Marathon reported an upset at the Carson section of its Los Angeles refinery in the morning (the Carson facility was combined with the Wilmington refinery in 2019 and now reports as a single unit to the state, but separately to the AQMD) and Chevron noted a “planned” flaring event Thursday afternoon. Diesel basis values in the region jumped 6 cents during the day. Chicago diesel basis also staged a recovery rally after differentials dropped past a 30 cent discount to futures earlier in the week, pushing wholesale values briefly below $2.10/gallon.
So far there haven’t been any reports of refinery disruptions from the severe weather than swept across the Houston area Thursday. Valero did report a weather-related upset at its Mckee refinery in the TX panhandle, although it appears they avoided having to take any units offline due to that event.
The Panama Canal Authority announced it was increasing its daily ship transit level to 31 from 24 as water levels in the region have recovered following more than a year of restrictions. That’s still lower than the 39 ships/day rate at the peak in 2021, but far better than the low of 18 ships per day that choked transit last year.
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Energy Prices Found A Temporary Floor After Hitting New Multi-Month Lows Wednesday
Energy prices found a temporary floor after hitting new multi-month lows Wednesday morning as a rally to record highs in US equity markets and a modestly bullish DOE report both seemed to encourage buyers to step back into the ring.
RBOB and ULSD futures both bounced more than 6 cents off of their morning lows, following a CPI report that eased inflation fears and boosted hopes for the stock market’s obsession of the FED cutting interest rates. Even though the correlation between energy prices and equities and currencies has been weak lately, the spillover effect on the bidding was clear from the timing of the moves Wednesday.
The DOE’s weekly report seemed to add to the optimism seen in equity markets as healthy increases in the government’s demand estimates kept product inventories from building despite increased refinery runs.
PADD 3 diesel stocks dropped after large increases in each of the past 3 weeks pushed inventories from the low end of their seasonal range to average levels. PADD 2 inventories remain well above average which helps explain the slump in mid-continent basis values over the past week. Diesel demand showed a nice recovery on the week and would actually be above the 5 year average if the 5% or so of US consumption that’s transitioned to RD was included in these figures.
Gasoline inventories are following typical seasonal patterns except on the West Coast where a surge in imports helped inventories recover for a 3rd straight week following April’s big basis rally.
Refiners for the most part are also following the seasonal script, ramping up output as we approach the peak driving demand season which unofficially kicks off in 10 days. PADD 2 refiners didn’t seem to be learning any lessons from last year’s basis collapse and rapidly increased run rates last week, which is another contributor to the weakness in midwestern cash markets. One difference this year for PADD 2 refiners is the new Transmountain pipeline system has eroded some of their buying advantage for Canadian crude grades, although those spreads so far haven’t shrunk as much as some had feared.
Meanwhile, wildfires are threatening Canada’s largest oil sands hub Ft. McMurray Alberta, and more than 6,000 people have been forced to evacuate the area. So far no production disruptions have been reported, but you may recall that fires in this region shut in more than 1 million barrels/day of production in 2016, which helped oil prices recover from their slump below $30/barrel.
California’s Air Resources Board announced it was indefinitely delaying its latest California Carbon Allowance (CCA) auction – in the middle of the auction - due to technical difficulties, with no word yet from the agency when bidders’ security payments will be returned, which is pretty much a nice microcosm for the entire Cap & Trade program those credits enable.