Tag: Robert Boslego

Oil To Test Storage Capacity

Posted on by Robert Boslego

Timing when oil storage will be full is one of the key issues of interest in the oil market. It depends on how long stays depressed, or how quickly it can rebound, and how much oil producers are cutting output in the U.S. and worldwide. The answers are unknown, but I will try to outline what is known and likely.

Oil data in the U.S. is the most timely and accurate, so that’s a good place to start. Crude oil inventories in Cushing, Ok., the delivery hub for the NYMEX WTI crude futures contract, reached 59.7 million barrels in the week ending April 17. About 2.1 million is used for line fill, and so 57.7 million is the net stocks held in tank farms. That represents 76 % of net working storage of 76.1 million barrels.

Given the excess storage, it would not explain why trader panic drove oil prices negative just prior to the expiration of the May contract. The reason was that the remaining storage was leased. “The terminals have already contracted their storage 100%,” said Ernie Barsamian, chief executive officer of The Tank Tiger, a terminal storage clearinghouse, was quoted.

And so traders who were still long but could not take delivery had to sell at any price. And buyers got Continue reading "Oil To Test Storage Capacity" →

World Oil Supply And Price Outlook, April 2020

Posted on by Robert Boslego

The Energy Information Administration released its Short-Term Energy Outlook for April, and it shows that OECD oil inventories likely bottomed last June 2018 at 2.802 billion barrels. It estimated stocks built by 109 million barrels in March to end at 3.059 billion, 201 million barrels higher than a year ago.

For 2020, OECD inventories are projected to build by 468 million barrels to 3.351 billion. For 2021 it forecasts that stocks will draw by 207 million barrels to end the year at 3.144 billion.

OECD Global Oil Inventories

The EIA forecast was made prior to the OPEC+ decision to cut production and exports. According to OPEC’s press release: Continue reading "World Oil Supply And Price Outlook, April 2020" →

Unprecedented Oil Glut Appears Inevitable

Posted on by Robert Boslego

The U.S. has voiced its concerns over the Saudi-Russian oil price war, but thus far, those concerns appear to have fallen on deaf ears. In an interview that was broadcast on CNBC, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) answer the question, “Do you think President Trump should try to use his influence with Russia or Saudi Arabia to try to get them to stop producing so much oil?”

“Absolutely. I think that is a major priority especially for my home state of Texas. And if you look what happened, right in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, a public health crisis that is dominating our focus, and an economic crisis that is flowing from it. Millions of people losing their jobs.

“The Saudis and Russians decided to take advantage of that crisis by flooding the market and driving the price of oil way, way down. And that was opportunistic. It was designed with a very specific purpose. The Saudis are trying to drive out of business American producers, and in particular shale producers, largely in the Permian Basin in Texas, North Dakota and in a number of oil producing states across the country.

“That behavior I think is wrong. I think it is taking advantage of a country that is a friend.

“A couple of weeks ago, I joined with thirteen senators in a letter to the Saudi Ambassador to pull back and stop trying to drive the price down to artificially low. Nine of the thirteen did a conference call with Saudi Ambassador that was as candid a call and direct a call as I’ve ever had with a foreign leader. The nine of us unloaded on her. And their defense was but Russia is doing this.

“I said but Russia is not our friend. We treat them accordingly. We are aware of their Continue reading "Unprecedented Oil Glut Appears Inevitable" →

World Oil Supply And Price Outlook, March 2020

Posted on by Robert Boslego

The Energy Information Administration released its Short-Term Energy Outlook for March, and it shows that OECD oil inventories likely bottomed last June 2018 at 2.802 billion barrels. It estimated stocks dipped by 5 million barrels in February to end at 2.914 billion, 44 million barrels higher than a year ago.

For 2020, OECD inventories are projected to build by 137 million barrels to 3.031 billion. For 2021 it forecasts that stocks will draw by 48 million barrels to end the year at 2.983 billion.

Oil

The EIA estimated that OPEC production dropped by 72,000 b/d in February to 28.49 million barrels per day. For 2020, it estimates that OPEC production will average about 29.08 million, about 720,000 b/d lower than in 2019. For 2021, it estimates OPEC production average 2.941 million. The EIA did not increase its estimates for OPEC despite the announcements by Saudi Arabia that it is pushing its production up to 12 million barrels per day and the UAE is increasing its production by 1 million barrels per day.

Oil

Oil Price Implications

I updated my linear regression between OECD oil inventories and WTI crude oil prices for the period 2010 through 2019. As expected, there are periods where the price deviates greatly from the regression model. But overall, the model provides a reasonably high r-square result of 79 percent. Continue reading "World Oil Supply And Price Outlook, March 2020" →

U.S. Crude Up 1.5 Million Per Day In 2019

Posted on by Robert Boslego

The Energy Information Administration reported that December crude oil production averaged 12.779 million barrels per day (mmbd), down 84,000 b/d from November. Reductions occurred in the Gulf of Mexico (47,000 b/d), North Dakota (40,000 b/d), Colorado (26,000 b/d) and Oklahoma (16,000 b/d) and were likely weather-related. Texas production rose by 32,000 b/d and reached a new high of 5.350 mmbd.

Phillips 66 Partner’s Gray Oak pipeline is expected to ship an additional 900,000 b/d in the Permian. It began shipments and is expected to be in full service by the end of the second quarter of 2020.

Crude

The gains from last December have amounted 816,000 b/d. And this number only includes crude oil. Other supplies (liquids) that are part of the petroleum supply add to that. For December, that additional gain is about 700,000 b/d. Continue reading "U.S. Crude Up 1.5 Million Per Day In 2019" →