Another Day, Another Record Set For RIN Prices

Market TalkWednesday, Jun 9 2021
Pivotal Week For Price Action

The bulls have regained control of petroleum futures as early losses Tuesday morning turned into solid afternoon gains, and that momentum carried through the overnight session, pushing all of the big 4 contracts to multi-year highs. WTI reached 70.62, and ULSD hit $2.1467, the highest for both contracts since October 2018, while Brent reached $72.83, its highest trade since June 2019. RBOB futures finally joined the rest of the complex, setting a new 3 year high at $2.2356 this morning, a level we haven’t seen since May of 2018.

If these early gains can hold on, the charts favor more upside, that should give WTI a run at the $77 range, which would mean ULSD making a run at $2.30 and RBOB pushing $2.40 in the next several weeks. 

The API was said to report a draw in U.S. crude oil stocks of 2.1 million barrels last week, which is getting some of the credit for the rally in WTI this morning. That doesn’t help explain why products are also up however since gasoline stocks increased by 2.4 million barrels and distillates grew by 3.7 million. The EIA’s weekly report is due out at 9:30 central.

Yesterday the DOE released its monthly Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO). The forecasts show increased expectations for U.S. Gasoline demand compared to previous reports, noting that demand before and after the Colonial shutdown has surpassed expectations, but will likely stay below pre-pandemic levels until the end of next year. Diesel meanwhile continues to show demand outstripping supply, causing a sharp drawdown in inventories in the U.S., and leaving the supply chain vulnerable over the coming months. The report also noted that diesel crack spreads have reached their highest levels since December 2019, but failed to mention that renewable volume obligations (RVO) eat up roughly $10/barrel of those gross margins.

Another day, another record set for RIN prices with both D6 and D4 values moving steadily higher even as corn and soybean prices pulled back from recent highs. That increase in RINs pushed the RVO cost for each gallon of gasoline or diesel produced or imported north of 23 cents/gallon. Remember that the next time someone asks you why gasoline prices are suddenly so high.     

Around the world and across industries, we’re witnessing the challenges faced by supply chains that are built for extremely large scale and efficiency struggling to meet the rapid pace of demand change. In the refined fuels world, that recovery has been hampered by two of the largest supply shocks ever, February’s Polar Plunge that disrupted just about every refinery in PADD 3 and the Colonial Pipeline hack that took half of the East Coast’s supply offline for a week. While things have calmed down considerably over the past several weeks, the fallout from both events is still being felt. Several refineries continue to struggle to bring units back online that were damaged in the freeze, and the FMCSA extended HOS waivers again for truckers are suppliers still struggle to catch up even though Colonial has been fully operational for three weeks.  

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

Market Update (01A) 6.9.21

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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.

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Refined Products Seeing Small Losses Of Around A Penny While Crude Oil Contracts Hover Just Above Break Even

Energy futures are taking a breather to start Tuesday’s trading, with refined products seeing small losses of around a penny while crude oil contracts hover just above break even.

No new news on either the Red Sea shipping or Russian Refining attacks this morning, so Cocoa prices seem to be taking over the commodity headlines while energy markets wait on their next big move.

RBOB gasoline futures set a new 6-month high Monday at $2.7711, which leaves the door open on the weekly charts for the spring rally to continue. A run at the $3 mark is certainly possible in the next few weeks before the typical seasonal price peak is set just before the start of driving season.

A container ship lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore this morning, causing a devastating collapse. While cargo shipping into the area will no doubt be impacted by this event, fuel supplies are unlikely to see any notable change since the 9 fuel terminals in Baltimore are primarily supplied by Colonial pipeline. Barges from Philadelphia refineries do supplement Baltimore supplies at times, and those vessel flows will be impacted at least until rescue operations are completed and the bridge sections removed from the waterway. That said, since shipping up from the Gulf Coast via Colonial is generally cheaper than shipping an NY Harbor-priced barrel south, the amount of supply disrupted by this event will be minimal.

While we’re still waiting on the official forecasts for the Atlantic Hurricane season, early reports continue to suggest that we could be in for a very busy year due to warm water temperatures and a forming La Nina pattern.

Dallas meanwhile is preparing for a different sort of disruption, with city officials encouraging companies to let employees work from home during the solar eclipse on April 8th as metroplex traffic is expected to surge. While some isolated fuel outages are certainly possible if people start panic buying gasoline they don’t need, there’s no reason to expect any widespread impact from the demand spike.

Today’s interesting read: Why AI requires a staggering amount of electricity and may create supply competition for EVs that will end up benefitting fossil fuels.

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