Energy Prices Struggle For Direction
Energy prices continue to struggle for direction this week, with crude prices down slightly, diesel up slightly and gasoline flat, leaving the complex stuck in its sideways summer trading range. Tomorrow OPEC & Friends are holding a meeting to discuss output quotas, which could be the catalyst to break prices out of their range. So far, there are no indications that a shift in policy has been made.
Even the shutdown of the country’s largest gasoline pipeline wasn’t enough to push RBOB futures through upside resistance at the 200 day moving average, and there are less than two weeks remaining of the summer grade futures contract trading in the prompt position, which is making gasoline prices look vulnerable to a big move lower if they can’t figure out a way to rally this week.
It’s a similar story for crude futures. Yes, WTI settled at its highest closing value in five months yesterday, but it has not threatened its intraday highs from earlier in the spring, and has sold off each time it’s traded near these levels. With Brent and refined products still entrenched in their sideways ranges, WTI is also looking like it’s in “rally or else” range.
Colonial’s main gasoline line remains shut, with repairs underway to fix a leak that spilled an estimated 63,000 gallons (1,500 barrels) in North Carolina. The pipeline also announced it was shifting operations to allow some gasoline to continue flowing via its main distillate line. Based on the muted market reaction, and the relatively small amount of fuel leaked, it appears that this issue will be solved in the next few days. There have been some allocation restrictions put in place in nearby terminals as a result of the reduced shipments, but so far nothing anywhere close to the widespread outages that we saw in 2016 when the pipeline had a similar shutdown following a leak.
The exception to the going nowhere rule is West Coast gasoline prices that reached their highest levels since March yesterday, thanks to a pair of unplanned refinery issues on top of the numerous economic run rate reductions.
The EIA this morning reported that bio-diesel production and margins have seen less of an impact from COVID demand destruction in 2020 than other fuels. The relative lack of impact is thanks to less blend percentage restrictions than ethanol and the various incentives in place to encourage blending. The report doesn’t mention that those incentives actually helped bio-diesel prices transact for negative values for an extended period this spring when ULSD futures were below $1. It does, however, warn that bio-diesel production will be challenged by growing imports of renewable diesel.
Just in time for no one to want to use it, the White House is enabling oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That would have been useful in 2008, not so much in 2020.
The national hurricane center is giving high probabilities for two new tropical storm systems to form in the Atlantic this week. The paths are unclear this far out, but either one still has the potential to be a threat to the U.S. next week.
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View AllEnergy 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.