March WTI Was Down Around 50 Cents Overnight But Has Since Recovered To Trade Near Breakeven

Energy futures are coming under selling pressure as traders return from Monday’s quasi-holiday. RBOB futures were leading the move lower with nickel losses in the early going while ULSD were down around 2 cents. March WTI was down around 50 cents overnight but has since recovered to trade near breakeven, while forward months are trading slightly lower.

EU officials authorized the deployment of naval assets to the Red Sea Monday to assist the US and UK navies in repelling the Houthi attacks on ships transiting the region.

Just a few of days after raining on the ethanol industry by saying they had to actually lower emissions to qualify for lower emissions tax credits, a new Reuters report suggests the White House is preparing an olive branch for the farm belt voting block by authorizing E15, with the catch that this may not begin until 2025. It’s been tough sledding for ethanol producers lately with spot prices and RINs both approaching 4-year lows in the past week.

Total’s Pt Arthur refinery reported an upset at a Sulfur Recover unit over the weekend but was able to return to normal operations based on their filing with the TCEQ. That facility has had units offline for more than a month since the January deep freeze and was attempting to restart the facility when this latest upset occurred.

A Bloomberg analysis Monday estimated that Ukranian attacks on Russian refineries has taken 380,000 barrels/day of fuel production capacity offline, which is helping to strengthen the distillate market as Russian product exports decline.     

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