Energy Market Updates

Markets rebounded somewhat today from yesterdays massive slide.

Oil & Refined products all plunged today on a series of events. Both Brent & WTI were down over 3% this morning, and by 2pm refined products were down over 11 cents.

Crude slipped past the looming $60/bbl benchmark this afternoon, as pricing surged over $2/bbl (~4%). Prices have been largely supported the past several weeks by looming Iranian-US tensions and price level support from the continuing OPEC+ production cuts.

Prices surged this morning after a slow down on Friday, on news from the G20 Summit that Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to extend the OPEC+ production cuts by another 6-9 months. The agreement still needs to be ratified at the upcoming OPEC meeting, but that is essentially a formality at this point, given Russia & the Saudi's are in agreement. 

The NYMEX is up big this afternoon in the wake of surprise draws in inventories, ongoing international issues, and the potential closure of the largest gasoline refinery on the East Coast. 

Gasoline spiked this morning, after a refinery explosion shook Southern Philadelphia. At around 4am, a butane vat exploded at the East Coast's largest  refinery, causing large fires and prompting an shelter in place order for the surrounding areas. There are no injuries reported, and CNBC is reporting the flames were relatively controlled with the SIP order lifted around 7am. You can follow this story here: Massive explosion at biggest gas refinery in East Coast 

So much for no major events on the horizon.. After yesterday's drop, where Crude closed out at a 5 month low, this morning the NYMEX was up sharply across the board on developing news of tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman. 

Prices continued to slide Wednesday as the EIA reported builds in Crude supplies of 2.21mmb for the week ending June 7th. (Yesterday, the API report indicated even more drastic build of 4.9mmb). This afternoon, WTI closed out at $51.14/bbl, the lowest close since January. WTI has dropped close to 20% since April peaks. 

The NYMEX was up today across the board, with Crude closing out at $63.08/bbl, comfortably above that $60 benchmark, and refined products both edged up almost 3 cents, with ULSD closing at 2.0424 (+.0290) and RBOB settling at 1.9687 (+.0288).