Energy Market Updates

Posts about:

hurricane Laura

Double Hurricane Threat Spikes Markets

Hurricane Laura & Marcos

Gasoline hit 5 month highs today, with distillates and Crude following upward as well, as twin storms Marco and Laura continue their trek towards the Gulf. 

Bloomberg is reporting that 60% of offshore production is already offline ahead of the storms, as of this morning, Additionally, Motiva & Valero are slated to close their Port Arthur plants and Exxon is planning to shutter Beaumont facilities.

The storms are anticipated to make landfall in a sort of one-two punch and could cause estimated billions in damages (depending on model accuracy).

What we wont know until its over, obviously, is whether plants and the Colonial Pipeline are impacted severely enough to cause a longer term spike in prices by impacting supply, or if we will see a reversal. 

This will be an interesting one to watch, in terms of longer term market impacts. The continuing pandemic has put enormous pressure on demand & consumption levels as much of the world slows down, so we have seen relative price stability in the face of factors that would normally push longer & sharper rallies, like back to back draws in US inventories, and continuing OPEC drama. Despite steadily creeping upward over the past month or two, Crude appears to be staying stable around the $40/benchmark for WTI, at least for now. (Of course, keep in mind that $40/bbl levels mean shale production coming back online, so it's anyone's guess where pricing heads next. )

At the close, September ULSD added .0396 to 1.2476, Gasoline jumped .0830 to 1.3671 and Crude settled at 42.62. October distillates were up .0357 to 1.2640 and gasoline added .0468 to 1.2598.

Stay Tuned, and Stay Safe out there!

 

Read More

Subscribe to Email Updates