Diesel Futures Try To Lead The Energy Complex Higher
Diesel futures are trying to lead the energy complex higher to start the week, testing the upper end of their sideways trading range, after chart support held up to several attempted sell-offs last week. There’s little in the way of news to drive the action so far, and it seems that we’re still stuck in the back and forth pattern until the range breaks.
While gasoline and diesel prices continue to move sideways, ethanol prices are holding at multi-year highs north of $2/gallon in most U.S. markets, thanks to elevated corn prices and RIN Values holding near all-time highs. Several ethanol producers that shut down operations when prices were in the $.70-$.80 cent range this time last year are coming back online to take advantage of these lofty prices, which will only increase pressure on feedstock producers to supply the parade of new renewable diesel projects racing to take advantage of the subsidies provided to turn food into fuel.
Baker Hughes reported no change in the total U.S. count of active oil rigs last week. The Eagle Ford basin in TX did increase its count by one rig, while the “other” category made up of smaller basins declined by one. A Rystad energy report released Friday suggested that fracking activities across the U.S. are approaching pre-pandemic levels, and that output should continue to increase in the second quarter, which is not surprising given current prices. What is more surprising is that flaring from those wells is down substantially as producers are beginning to catch up with the infrastructure needed to deal with the excess natural gas produced in those operations.
Money managers continue to display mixed feelings for energy contracts, which isn’t too hard to understand given the yo-yo price action we’ve seen in recent weeks. The large speculative category of trader decreased their net long position in WTI, Brent and Gasoil last week by relatively small amounts, but added to their bets on higher priced for RBOB and ULSD.
Houthi rebels launched more attacks on Saud Arabia overnight, this time targeting an area with several refineries. It’s not immediately clear what if any damage was done to those facilities, but given the limited impact of several recent attacks, the market does not appear too concerned.
Today’s interesting read: Why closing a nuclear power plant in New York will increase natural gas consumption, and may cause more diesel demand spikes when electricity demand peaks.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk.
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Energy Prices Up Over 2% Across The Board This Morning
Refined product futures traded in an 8-10 cent range yesterday with prompt heating oil settling up ~6 cents and RBOB ending up about flat. Oil prices clawed back some of the losses taken in the first two full trading days of the week, putting the price per barrel for US crude back over the $70 mark. Prices are up just over 2% across the board this morning, signifying confidence after the Senate passed the bipartisan debt ceiling bill last night.
The EIA reported crude oil inventories up 4.5 million barrels last week, aided by above-average imports, weakened demand, and a sizeable increase to their adjustment factor. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve continues to release weekly through June and the 355 million barrels remaining in the SPR is now at a low not seen since September 1983. Exports increased again on the week and continue to run well above last year’s record-setting levels through the front half of the year. Refinery runs and utilization rates have increased to their highest points this year, both sitting just above year-ago rates.
Diesel stocks continue to hover around the low end of the 5-year range set in 2022, reporting a build of about half of what yesterday’s API data showed. Most PADDs saw modest increases last week but all are sitting far below average levels. Distillate imports show 3 weeks of growth trending along the seasonal average line, while 3.7 million barrels leaving the US last week made it the largest increase in exports for the year. Gasoline inventories reported a small decline on the week, also being affected by the largest jump in exports this year, leaving it under the 5-year range for the 11th consecutive week. Demand for both products dwindled last week; however, gas is still comfortably above average despite the drop.
The sentiment surrounding OPEC+’s upcoming meeting is they’re not likely to extend oil supply cuts, despite prices falling early in the week. OPEC+ is responsible for a significant portion of global crude oil production and its policy decisions can have a major impact on prices. Some members of OPEC+ have voluntarily cut production since April due to a waning economic outlook, but the group is not expected to take further action next week.
Click here to download a PDF of today's TACenergy Market Talk
Prices Are Mixed This Morning As The Potential Halt In U.S. Interest Rate Hikes
Bearish headlines pushed refined products and crude futures down again yesterday. Prompt RBOB closed the month at $2.5599 and HO at $2.2596 with WTI dropping another $1.37 to $68.09 and Brent losing 88 cents. Prices are mixed this morning as the potential halt in U.S. interest rate hikes and the House passing of the US debt ceiling bill balanced the impact of rising inventories and mixed demand signals from China.
The American Petroleum Institute reported crude builds of 5.2 million barrels countering expectations of a draw. Likewise, refined product inventories missed expectations and were also reported to be up last week with gasoline adding 1.891 million barrels and diesel stocks rising 1.849 million barrels. The market briefly attempted a push higher but ultimately settled with losses following the reported supply increases implying weaker than anticipated demand. The EIA will publish its report at 10am this morning.
LyondellBasell announced plans yesterday to delay closing of their Houston refinery, originally scheduled to shut operations by the end of this year, through Q1 2025. The company “remains committed to ceasing operation of its oil refining business” but the 289,000 b/d facility remaining online longer than expected will likely have market watchers adjusting this capacity back into their balance estimates.
Side note: there is still an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Two oil refineries located east of Russia's major oil export terminals were targeted by drone attacks. The Afipsky refinery’s 37,000 b/d crude distillation unit was struck yesterday, igniting a massive fire that was later extinguished while the other facility avoided any damage. The attacks are part of a series of intensified drone strikes on Russian oil pipelines. Refineries in Russia have been frequently targeted by drones since the start of the military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.