Refined Products Are Selling Off To Start April Trading With Both Gasoline And Diesel Futures Off Close To 3 Cents In The Early Going

Refined products are selling off to start April trading with both gasoline and diesel futures off close to 3 cents in the early going, while crude oil contracts are only down around 30 cents/barrel. The early losses follow a strong first quarter of the year that pushed gasoline and crude oil prices to their highest levels since the fall, while distillates struggled to keep up.

Money managers tempered their enthusiasm last week after pouring heavily into oil contracts the week prior. WTI saw a small decline in the net length held by speculators, while Brent saw a minor increase, pushing its total net length to a fresh high for the past year. Diesel continues to fall out of favor with the large speculators, with both ULSD/HO and Gasoil contracts seeing a drop in long positions and new shorts added last week.

Baker Hughes reported a net decline of 3 oil rigs drilling in the US last week, while the natural gas drilling count held steady. Despite the big decline in rig counts last year, US producers set a world record for production, and a Bloomberg article over the weekend highlighted how that’s changing the global oil market. The EIA was also focused on US exports in its latest energy blog, highlighting how the country became the largest exporter of LNG last year.

Flint Hills reported an upset in an FCC unit at its Corpus Christi East refinery Thursday afternoon, one day after reported a fire at its West facility. Still no word on any lasting impact from those events.

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