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When shortages and stoppages can be a good thing for US steel
The history of American steel labor and imports has been intertwined for decades, starting with a lengthy nationwide steel strike in 1959 that introduced the country to big-time steel importing. These...
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How did the SPR become so popular on Capitol Hill? The illusion of a piggy bank
About 700 million barrels of crude oil stored in four sites along the US Gulf coast seems to have recently inspired the imagination of a cash-strapped Congress. With US crude production nearing record...
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Base metals come to terms with China’s ‘new normal’ in July
In July, base metals faced two dominant headwinds in the form of the Greek debt crisis and the China stock market crash that saw metals test fresh multi-year lows on the London Metal Exchange. This led...
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Base metals continue to struggle in August on China concerns
In August, the base metals market remained focused on the situation in China with metal prices continuing to struggle on the back of further volatility across Asian equity markets. The Shanghai...
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September gloom in store for US ethanol prices?
US ethanol producers are treading water right now with razor-thin margins brought on by low prices, but if historical trends hold up, things could get even uglier in September. Bullish September WASDE...
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A very refined irony: Switzerland dips into emergency oil stocks as main...
Global refined product markets are very well supplied at the moment, as evidenced by the steep spot price falls seen for diesel, jet fuel and gasoline over the last few weeks. Partly, this is the...
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Why US natural gas prices hit multi-year lows this week
On Oct. 29, 2015, the NYMEX November natural gas futures contract settled at $2.033/MMBtu. For comparison, the November contract closed at $3.649/MMBtu in 2014, $1.61 higher or 79 percent higher than...
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The pig and the python: How American refineries are dealing with the oil glut
Record US crude oil inventory levels in 2015 reminds us of a pig crossing paths with a python. The pig is consumed by the snake, bulging in the reptile’s stomach as it goes through the digestive...
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California’s contrarian gasoline market reverses trend again for 2016
The US West Coast market is strange. Disconnected from the rest of the US, it’s a bit of a red-headed stepchild, especially for gasoline. While the Gulf Coast can send refined products up to the...
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SoCal Gas’ Aliso Canyon gas storage leak raises questions about California...
The Southern California Gas Company is one of the biggest local distribution companies in the United States, covering much of Southern California, and is a regulated utility within Sempra Energy. One...
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Warm winter keeps natural gas prices subdued, production growth in question
The natural gas market has worked itself into an interesting situation recently. The combination of a warm winter in 2015-16, declining associated production, lack of new infrastructure and coal...
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Why the crude rally has fizzled, concluded: Market analysis series
This is the third and final segment of a three-part look at why oil prices have failed to rally despite OPEC’s best efforts at managing supply cuts. Not only have prices failed to rally, both NYMEX WTI...
View ArticleCrude storage costs rise in first auction following Hurricane Harvey: In the...
The price of front-month sour crude oil storage at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port on Tuesday sold at its highest level since May while at least 2 million b/d of Texas refining capacity remains offline...
View ArticleSeptember crude imports at LOOP up 10% from average following Harvey: In The...
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port continues to experience a surge in crude oil imports more than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast and prevented ports in that state from receiving...
View ArticleCrude storage costs fall as WTI curve flattens: In the LOOP
The price of front-month sour crude oil storage at the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port fell 5 cents/b month on month even as imports to the US Gulf Coast increased over the same period to pre-Harvey...
View ArticleTerminal reports sharp rebound in LOOP Sour cavern exports for June
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port delivered more than 1.1 million barrels of the blended crude LOOP Sour ex-cavern in June, more than double the amount it delivered in May, the oil terminal said Monday....
View ArticleMidland WTI gets its own cavern at LOOP crude terminal
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port has quietly allocated one of its eight underground crude oil storage caverns to West Texas Intermediate, a reflection of the Texas grade’s continued ascent as the US’...
View ArticleEx-cavern LOOP Sour deliveries hit nearly 1 million barrels in September
LOOP Sour ex-cavern deliveries in September were just shy of 1 million barrels, and it appears companies are more interested in refining the crude blend rather than storing it given the backwardated...
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Insight: US natural gas, coal markets calm about low inventories … for now
The growth of low-priced natural gas supply from Appalachia and Texas appears to be changing the market calculus on winter heating demand this year. With pre-winter gas inventories sitting at their...
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Rapid US natural gas storage injections put pressure on prices
As what remains of the Henry Hub summer strip moves below $2.30/MMBtu, US natural gas prices at multiple hubs could stay subdued during the summer months. Regional dynamics mean underground storage...
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