Energy Complex Carves Out A Bottom Following Price Collapse

Market TalkWednesday, Feb 19 2020
Abbreviated Trading Session Starts Mixed

Oil and gasoline prices are trading at three-week highs to start Wednesday’s session, as the energy complex seems to be carving out a bottom after the viral price collapse in January.

Much of the early buying is being blamed on U.S. sanctions against Russian oil firm Rosneft, over its dealings with Venezuela. Near term, these sanctions are likely to complicate shipments for what little oil is still flowing from Venezuela, while longer term it raises tensions between the world’s two largest oil producers.

Another bullish headline: Rocket attacks in Libya – some of which forced the closure of the country’s largest fuel port – have put an end to cease-fire talks. More than one million barrels/day of oil production – nearly one percent of global output - remains shuttered due to the ongoing violence.

Ethanol RINs reached a nine-month high Tuesday, more than doubling in value since three small refinery exemptions to the RFS were quashed by a circuit court last month. The industry continues to debate whether this ruling could spread to other small refineries.

At least four different unplanned refinery issues from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast were reported in the past 48 hours, but seem to have failed to inspire any buying as basis levels in both markets dipped in Tuesday’s trading.

While financial markets await the minutes of the latest FOMC meeting to see when the next rate cut might happen, take a look at the article written by the Dallas FED President on economic conditions and the oil industry. 

A few highlights below:

It is the view of Dallas Fed economists that global oil production (crude oil and liquids) will increase by 0.7 mb/d to approximately 102.3 mb/d from fourth quarter 2019 to fourth quarter 2020.[15] This production forecast assumes growth of 0.7 mb/d in the U.S. and 0.7 mb/d in other non-OPEC countries, and a decline of 0.7 mb/d in OPEC oil production.

In the U.S. more broadly, lower oil prices should benefit U.S. consumers by freeing up more of their disposable income for the consumption of non-oil goods and services. However, because the U.S. is no longer a net importer of oil and petroleum products, the benefit to U.S. GDP of lower oil prices for consumers may be increasingly offset by the negative impact on domestic energy producers in terms of capital spending and employee compensation.

…due to the impact of the [corona] virus, first quarter 2020 global oil demand will decline by approximately 0.4 mb/d versus the first quarter of 2019. It further assumes that a substantial portion of this consumption decline will reverse in subsequent quarters of 2020. It is worth noting that the expected first-quarter consumption decline would be the first year-over-year drop in quarterly oil demand since the Great Recession of 2007–09.

Dallas Fed energy economists expect that global energy consumption will increasingly reflect reduced reliance on fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) as a share of total consumption. This reduced reliance is primarily due to expected growth in renewable energy.

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

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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.

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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.