Trio Of Supply Concerns Dissipate

Market TalkMonday, Oct 12 2020
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Energy prices are under pressure for a second straight session following strong weekly gains as a trio of supply concerns are dissipating, which seems to be outweighing the stimulus optimism fueling another rally in equity markets.  

Hurricane Delta made landfall as a Category 2 storm Friday evening, just 13 miles from where Hurricane Laura hit six weeks ago. While Delta didn’t pack the punch that Laura did, and didn’t stick around long enough to dump the huge amounts of rain parts of the gulf coast saw from Hurricane Sally, it did produce wide spread power outages that are hampering the supply network. Most of the refiners in the Pt Arthur area had to shut units down due to storm-related issues, and Colonial pipeline’s main diesel line is still shut down as they await power to be restored near the Lake Charles area. 

No word yet on the status of the Lake Charles refineries, but based on the storm’s path, and the damage we’ve already seen further away in Pt. Arthur, it appears likely both facilities will have to go through another round of repairs to resume operations. Just like with Laura, it will likely be a few days until the damage can be assessed at the facilities that were just resuming operations after Laura and will now start over again.  It appears that the plants around Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which were originally in Delta’s crosshairs, have dodged yet another bullet in the busiest hurricane season on record. 

There are roughly seven weeks left in the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, and the NHC is giving 30% probability that a system churning east of the Windward islands will develop in the next five days. Those are relatively low odds, and wind conditions don’t appear favorable at the moment, but in this record setting year, it seems like a mistake to ignore any potential storm.

Good news for Libya, bad news for OPEC? The beleaguered country’s oil output is coming back online, complicating OPEC’s output plans as Libya has been exempted from previous production cuts. 

The Norwegian oil strike came to an end after successful mediation last week, which will keep more than 300mb/day of oil production online, adding to the downward pressure on prices.

Baker Hughes reported four more oil rigs were put to work last week, the third weekly increase in a row. Texas and New Mexico accounted for the build with Permian and Eagle Ford basins each adding one rig on the week, and two more were added in smaller unclassified areas.

Money managers continue to be unimpressed with oil contracts, making small reductions in net length in WTI and Brent for a second week, while making small increases to bullish wagers on refined products. RBOB gasoline continues to see a counter-seasonal bet on higher prices from the large speculators, while ULSD contracts remain in a net short position as the big funds bet diesel prices will lag.

New cleaner energy options continue to be a major story that’s getting even more attention given the polarity of the Presidential candidates on the issue. An unintended consequence in the surge of “green” stimulus packages is that they’re driving up costs for these projects, similar to what we saw with the spike in home remodeling & pool installation projects this summer. A Rystad energy report last week highlighted how those rising costs may hamper the development of one of the more promising alternatives, Green Hydrogen.

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Pivotal Week For Price Action
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.