After the most recent missile launch and after the UN imposed fuel supply sanctions on North Korea: “We’ve been kicking the can down the road, and we’re out of road.”
H.R. McMaster, White House national security adviser
Oil prices continued to climb last week with US futures closing at $50.66 and London at $56.90. The $6 spread between NY and London is mostly due to the aftermath of the US hurricanes which have resulted in the growth of US crude inventories while elsewhere they have declined. Market sentiment has changed in the last few weeks with many now convinced that oil prices will be moving higher due to the OPEC production cuts and strong demand for oil products brought on by the relatively low prices. The IEA just upgraded its demand growth estimate for 2017 to 1.6 million b/d. If growth like this continues, it will eat through the global surplus rather quickly.
[In commenting on India forcing ExxonMobil to renegotiate LNG prices] “This trend is overall a negative for sellers, as they are forced to provide more flexibility to buyers’ needs to maintain their markets. The risk of price renegotiations will become more acute over the next couple years as spot LNG prices remain depressed, even if oil-linked prices rise. The elephant in the room will be how negotiations play out with traditional markets in Japan and Korea, and especially the Chinese national oil companies.”
Saul Kavonic, analyst with Wood Mackenzie
Oil prices rose steadily last week with US crude futures briefly topping the psychological barrier of $50 a barrel and with London futures closing at $55.62. Most analysts are talking about higher prices ahead. The IEA’s monthly report says that the global oil supply contracted in the past month and that demand remains strong. These judgments came despite the US hurricanes that shut down over 25 percent of US refining capacity and took a good, but as yet unknown, bite out US demand in the Southeastern US and along the Gulf Coast.
“…The US is deluding itself when it comes to energy abundance (generally) and oil (specifically). Yet that’s not what we hear from the cheerleaders in the industry or in our media. From them, we hear a silver-tongued narrative of coming riches — a narrative that contains some truth, some myth, and a lot of fantasy. It’s those last two parts — the myths and fantasies — that are going to seriously hurt many investors, as well cause a lot of extremely poor policy and investment decisions.”
Chris Martenson, commentator at www.peakprosperity.com, former investments manager
Oil prices rose some $3 a barrel for the first three days last week and then collapsed on Thursday and Friday as Beijing announced its plans to reduce the capacity of its small “teapot” refineries, and Hurricane Irma closed in on Florida reducing demand for oil products in the state. Recovery from the Texas hurricane, Harvey, continues with 8 of 20 refineries that were closed by the hurricane now back to normal operations. The ports of Corpus Christi and Houston are returning to normal, and several other refineries report they will be back in operation in the next week or two. Gasoline prices in the US are starting to retreat from storm-induced spikes as refineries and pipelines return to normal. The unusually large crude and product reserves in stockpiles have helped cushion price increases.
“Any changes that disrupt energy trade across our North American borders, reduce investment protection or revert to high tariffs and trade barriers that preceded NAFTA could put at risk tens of millions of jobs.”
From top oil and gas trade groups from the US, Canada. and Mexico, in a joint position paper released last month prior to new NAFTA-related talks.
As the severe flooding spread further east last week, closing down numerous refineries and causing widespread devastation, it is becoming apparent that it will be several weeks before the full impact on the US oil industry and indeed global oil markets can be assessed. At one point last week the hurricane shut down a quarter of US refining capacity, some 4.0-4.4 million b/d, but oil production outages mostly from Gulf production came to less than 1 million b/d. With a lot of oil going into storage and refinery demand well below normal, US oil prices have moved very little in the past week, while Brent has remained stronger in anticipation that Europe will be called on to replace the missing US barrels in the next few weeks.
