Energy Futures Continue Slow March
Energy futures continue their slow march through the winter doldrums without much sense of direction, starting the week chopping back and forth between gains and losses.
Rumors of a refinery issue in New Jersey Friday helped RBOB gasoline futures end last week on a strong note, but a lack of reaction in New York cash markets suggests that won’t be enough of a catalyst to push prices through the top end of their month-old trading range. We are approaching the seasonal window where we expect gasoline prices to rally as the transition to summer-grades begins, so there’s a good chance we could see that break-out before February comes to an end.
Another winter-storm-related refinery fire over the weekend, this time at the plant outside of St. Louis operated by P66. As is often the case, there are conflicting reports on the operational status of the plant following the fire, with some claiming a crude distillation unit has been shut as a result, while others suggest normal operations continue. Given the location of the facility, if there is an extended downtime, expect the Chicago spot market to react first as barrels coming north on the Explorer pipeline may be diverted to meet demand in area. The silver lining of PADD 2 gasoline inventories reaching all-time highs in the past few weeks are that – so far – the rash of refinery issues is having a relatively minor impact on prices.
Money managers added to their net long holdings in Brent crude oil contracts for a 5th straight week, but the rate of increase dropped sharply with only about 12 hundred net contracts added to the long side of the ledger vs 12 thousand the week prior.
The CFTC is still playing catch-up with its Commitments of Traders reports, releasing data from the first week of January on Friday. That report showed sharp reductions in NYMEX holdings by money managers, with WTI net-length dropping to the bottom of its 5 year range, while ULSD contracts fell to a net-short position for the first time since July 2017.
Based on where the large funds started the year, it appears that they largely missed out on the early 2019 rally in energy futures, adding insult to injury after they were caught on the wrong side of the 2018 sell-off.
Baker Hughes reported a net increase of 7 drilling rigs across the US last week, with the 2019 pattern continuing to look much different than a the past few years as the count in Texas dropped for a 5th straight week to a total of 511 rigs, while California and Alaska, with a combined 13 rigs between them a week ago, added 4 rigs each last week.
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Gasoline Futures Are Leading The Way Lower This Morning
It was a volatile night for markets around the world as Israel reportedly launched a direct strike against Iran. Many global markets, from equities to currencies to commodities saw big swings as traders initially braced for the worst, then reversed course rapidly once Iran indicated that it was not planning to retaliate. Refined products spiked following the initial reports, with ULSD futures up 11 cents and RBOB up 7 at their highest, only to reverse to losses this morning. Equities saw similar moves in reverse overnight as a flight to safety trade soon gave way to a sigh of relief recovery.
Gasoline futures are leading the way lower this morning, adding to the argument that we may have seen the spring peak in prices a week ago, unless some actual disruption pops up in the coming weeks. The longer term up-trend is still intact and sets a near-term target to the downside roughly 9 cents below current values. ULSD meanwhile is just a nickel away from setting new lows for the year, which would open up a technical trap door for prices to slide another 30 cents as we move towards summer.
A Reuters report this morning suggests that the EPA is ready to announce another temporary waiver of smog-prevention rules that will allow E15 sales this summer as political winds continue to prove stronger than any legitimate environmental agenda. RIN prices had stabilized around 45 cents/RIN for D4 and D6 credits this week and are already trading a penny lower following this report.
Delek’s Big Spring refinery reported maintenance on an FCC unit that would require 3 days of work. That facility, along with several others across TX, have had numerous issues ever since the deep freeze events in 2021 and 2024 did widespread damage. Meanwhile, overnight storms across the Midwest caused at least one terminal to be knocked offline in the St. Louis area, but so far no refinery upsets have been reported.
Meanwhile, in Russia: Refiners are apparently installing anti-drone nets to protect their facilities since apparently their sling shots stopped working.
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The Sell-Off Continues In Energy Markets, RBOB Gasoline Futures Are Now Down Nearly 13 Cents In The Past Two Days
The sell-off continues in energy markets. RBOB gasoline futures are now down nearly 13 cents in the past two days, and have fallen 16 cents from a week ago, leading to questions about whether or not we’ve seen the seasonal peak in gasoline prices. ULSD futures are also coming under heavy selling pressure, dropping 15 cents so far this week and are trading at their lowest level since January 3rd.
The drop on the weekly chart certainly takes away the upside momentum for gasoline that still favored a run at the $3 mark just a few days ago, but the longer term up-trend that helped propel a 90-cent increase since mid-December is still intact as long as prices stay above the $2.60 mark for the next week. If diesel prices break below $2.50 there’s a strong possibility that we see another 30 cent price drop in the next couple of weeks.
An unwind of long positions after Iran’s attack on Israel was swatted out of the sky without further escalation (so far anyway) and reports that Russia is resuming refinery runs, both seeming to be contributing factors to the sharp pullback in prices.
Along with the uncertainty about where the next attacks may or may not occur, and if they will have any meaningful impact on supply, come no shortage of rumors about potential SPR releases or how OPEC might respond to the crisis. The only thing that’s certain at this point, is that there’s much more spare capacity for both oil production and refining now than there was 2 years ago, which seems to be helping keep a lid on prices despite so much tension.
In addition, for those that remember the chaos in oil markets 50 years ago sparked by similar events in and around Israel, read this note from the NY Times on why things are different this time around.
The DOE’s weekly status report was largely ignored in the midst of the big sell-off Wednesday, with few noteworthy items in the report.
Diesel demand did see a strong recovery from last week’s throwaway figure that proves the vulnerability of the weekly estimates, particularly the week after a holiday, but that did nothing to slow the sell-off in ULSD futures.
Perhaps the biggest next of the week was that the agency made its seasonal changes to nameplate refining capacity as facilities emerged from their spring maintenance.
PADD 2 saw an increase of 36mb/day, and PADD 3 increased by 72mb/day, both of which set new records for regional capacity. PADD 5 meanwhile continued its slow-motion decline, losing another 30mb/day of capacity as California’s war of attrition against the industry continues. It’s worth noting that given the glacial pace of EIA reporting on the topic, we’re unlikely to see the impact of Rodeo’s conversion in the official numbers until next year.
Speaking of which, if you believe the PADD 5 diesel chart below that suggests the region is running out of the fuel, when in fact there’s an excess in most local markets, you haven’t been paying attention. Gasoline inventories on the West Coast however do appear consistent with reality as less refining output and a lack of resupply options both continue to create headaches for suppliers.