Refinery Restarts Underway

Market TalkMonday, Feb 22 2021
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The snow is gone and the power is on, after a 70 degree warm up in five days and the refinery restarts are underway. How long those restarts take, and which plants may choose to move up spring maintenance as long as they are doing repairs anyway will be the two main factors determining if tight supplies last a few days or a few weeks. Oil prices are ticking up and products are seeing small losses as the traders seem to be cautious about the return to relative normalcy this week. 

While some news outlets are suggesting that the damage done last week may mean a spike in retail gas prices north of $3/gallon, it appears wholesale price gains may be limited to the 10-20 cents for diesel and 20-30 cents for gasoline thanks in large part to excess capacity before the storm and soft demand.

Notices filed to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) throughout the week detail the hundreds of facilities from production, transportation and refining of oil and natural gas products that were knocked offline due to the cold or lack of power. A Reuters article highlighted that the subsequent emissions events over the past week surpassed those reported for an entire year at several facilities. 

The EPA issued a temporary emergency waiver on TXLED diesel additive and El Paso oxygenate requirements to try and help expedite resupply through March 5. The relatively limited scope of those waivers probably won’t have much impact since the TXLED additives are often blended at the terminals anyway, and neither of the largest RBOB markets of Houston or DFW appear to be getting a break. We are still in the early days of the spring RVP transition however, so producing on-spec gasoline is still relatively easy compared to summer-time blends, which will help output crank up quickly.

Baker Hughes reported a decline of one active oil rig in the U.S. last week, snapping a streak of gains that stretched for 12 straight weeks. With the chaos in Texas last week, it’s hard to say how accurate the count may have been, with estimates suggesting nearly half of the Permian Basin’s output was forced to temporarily shut in, and the “active” drilling rigs were likely anything but.

Money managers look like they froze along with much of the energy industry last week, making only minimal changes to their holdings in the petroleum-based energy contracts. Most notable in the CFTC weekly report is that WTI net length held by large speculators ticked to a new 18 month high, and open interest in WTI & Brent contracts surged to its highest in almost a year. That renewed interest from the big money speculators could mean we’ll see more volatility in the weeks ahead as the influx or exit of their dollars can create large price swings.

Today’s interesting read:  How margin requirements spiked along with natural gas prices last week. 

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Market TalkThursday, Mar 28 2024

Energy Markets Are Ticking Modestly Higher Heading Into The Easter Weekend With Crude Oil Prices Leading The Way Up About $1.25/Barrel Early Thursday Morning

Energy markets are ticking modestly higher heading into the Easter Weekend with crude oil prices leading the way up about $1.25/barrel early Thursday morning, while gasoline prices are up around 2.5 cents and ULSD futures are about a penny.

Today is the last trading day for April HO and RBOB futures, an unusually early expiration due to the month ending on a holiday weekend. None of the pricing agencies will be active tomorrow since the NYMEX and ICE contracts are completely shut, so most rack prices published tonight will carry through Monday.

Gasoline inventories broke from tradition and snapped a 7 week decline as Gulf Coast supplies increased, more than offsetting the declines in PADDs 1, 2 and 5. With gulf coast refiners returning from maintenance and cranking out summer grade gasoline, the race is now officially on to move their excess through the rest of the country before the terminal and retail deadlines in the next two months. While PADD 3 run rates recover, PADD 2 is expected to see rates decline in the coming weeks with 2 Chicago-area refineries scheduled for planned maintenance, just a couple of weeks after BP returned from 7 weeks of unplanned repairs.

Although terminal supplies appear to be ample around the Baltimore area, we have seen linespace values for shipping gasoline on Colonial tick higher in the wake of the tragic bridge collapse as some traders seem to be making a small bet that the lack of supplemental barge resupply may keep inventories tight until the barge traffic can move once again. The only notable threat to refined product supplies is from ethanol barge traffic which will need to be replaced by truck and rail options, but so far that doesn’t seem to be impacting availability at the rack. Colonial did announce that they would delay the closure of its underutilized Baltimore north line segment that was scheduled for April 1 to May 1 out of an “abundance of caution”.

Ethanol inventories reached a 1-year high last week as output continues to hold above the seasonal range as ethanol distillers seem to be betting that expanded use of E15 blends will be enough to offset sluggish gasoline demand. A Bloomberg article this morning also highlights why soybeans are beginning to displace corn in the subsidized food to fuel race.

Flint Hills reported a Tuesday fire at its Corpus Christi West facility Wednesday, although it’s unclear if that event will have a material impact on output after an FCC unit was “stabilized” during the fire. While that facility isn’t connected to Colonial, and thus doesn’t tend to have an impact on USGC spot pricing, it is a key supplier to the San Antonio, Austin and DFW markets, so any downtime may be felt at those racks.

Meanwhile, P66 reported ongoing flaring at its Borger TX refinery due to an unknown cause. That facility narrowly avoided the worst wildfires in state history a few weeks ago but is one of the frequent fliers on the TCEQ program with upsets fairly common in recent years.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk, including all charts from the Weekly DOE Report.

Pivotal Week For Price Action
Pivotal Week For Price Action
Market TalkWednesday, Mar 27 2024

Most Energy Contracts Are Ticking Lower For A 2nd Day After A Trickle Of Selling Picked Up Steam Tuesday

Most energy contracts are ticking lower for a 2nd day after a trickle of selling picked up steam Tuesday. ULSD futures are down a dime from Monday’s highs and RBOB futures are down 7 cents.

Diesel prices continue to look like the weak link in the energy chain, with futures coming within 1 point of their March lows overnight, setting up a test of the December lows around $2.48 if that resistance breaks down. Despite yesterday’s slide, RBOB futures still look bullish on the weekly charts, with a run towards the $3 mark still looking like a strong possibility in the next month or so.

The API reported crude stocks increased by more than 9 million barrels last week, while distillates were up 531,000 and gasoline stocks continued their seasonal decline falling by 4.4 million barrels. The DOE’s weekly report is due out at its normal time this morning.

RIN values have recovered to their highest levels in 2 months around $.59/RIN for D4 and D6 RINs, even though the recovery rally in corn and soybean prices that had helped lift prices off of the 4 year lows set in February has stalled out. Expectations for more biofuel production to be shut in due to weak economics with lower subsidy values seems to be encouraging the tick higher in recent weeks, although prices are still about $1/RIN lower than this time last year.

Reminder that Friday is one of only 3 annual holidays in which the Nymex is completely shut, so no prices will be published, but it’s not a federal holiday in the US so banks will be open.

Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.