In Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ,US Energy Futures Will Have an Abbreviated Trading Session Today

Energy futures are trading higher this morning with the prompt month ULSD contract leading the way with 1.5% gains to start the day, tacking on nearly 4 cents. WTI and RBOB futures are leaning higher in sympathy, each leaning on the green side this morning, if only just.

US energy futures will have an abbreviated trading session today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and will not settle this afternoon. It’s also a banking holiday and all price reporting agencies will not publish their assessments today.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron made headlines over the weekend as the FTC approved both majors’ acquisitions of oil exploration outfits. The Commission’s approval came with conditions, however, barring the CEOs of Pioneer and Hess from joining the respective purchasing companies’ boards in order to prevent collusion and anticompetitive behavior.

Baker Hughes reported a two-rig decrease in their count of active oil production platforms last week. At 478, that brings the total active oil production facilities to lows not seen since December of 2021. Side note, while production has dropped slightly last week, we are still producing more crude oil than any other county (chart from last week’s DOE report below).

Speaking of, the record-topping US oil production poses slight problems for some of the campaign promises made by the president-elect. It’s unclear whether hope or state intervention was the strategy to push oil companies to make more oil. We’ll be sure to listen for clarification at today’s inauguration.