Good morning,

I hope this message finds you well.  The crude oil market ended the week fairly flat.  WTI prices are holding above $50/barrel and I do believe the current floor at $50/barrel will hold.  As demand for crude looks to increase in the coming months, as well as President Biden’s plan to print more money for stimulus, I expect crude prices to move higher.  The two scenarios that could potentially cause a collapse in crude prices are new variants of COVID-19 spreading that resist vaccines or OPEC increasing production faster than anticipated.  For the time being, the vaccines seem to be handling the new variants.  And we seem to have a plan in place to roll out distribution faster and more efficiently.  If the US is able to meet or exceed 100M doses administered in the next 100 days, the US has a shot at returning to more normalcy by summer and into the fall.  If lockdowns in Europe and emerging markets continue to depress demand and OPEC increases production, we could see the bottom fall out of crude prices.  However, Saudi Arabia, the largest swing producer, has made it very clear this month that their intention is to not let that happen.  For now, I think we have a very firm floor on crude prices with much more risk to the upside than the downside.

In local retail news, gasoline and diesel retail prices continue to hold firm.  Gasoline retail prices are mostly over $2.19/gallon and diesel retail is holding firm around $2.49/gallon.  Once again, I do not expect to see retail prices go down in the coming week.

Propane is continuing to experience a “short squeeze” due to record exportation out of the Texas hubs.  The cost of propane out of the Midwest hub continues to skyrocket in order to keep supplies from being shipped south for exporting.  Propane cost has risen almost 40 cents/gallon in six weeks!  I do not expect to see this continue through February.  There are already rumors of canceled and decreased purchases from China and others in February.  The only wild card is the weather.  If local demand stays very strong, we could see some support in prices holding.  However, the forecast for February seems to be warmer than normal.  I do not expect to see production slow down, so for now, we will wait and hope February brings some price relief.  I am hopefully that the current retail price will be the highest for the season.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to reach out.

Best regards,

Jon Crawford

Good morning,

I hope this message finds you well.  I think it is safe to say that we are starting off 2021 picking up right where we left off in 2020:  lots of uncertainty, stress, and chaos.  WTI crude prices look to finish the week at an 11 month high due to many factors.  The week started off with OPEC+ meeting and surprisingly a curve ball was thrown by Saudi Arabia to end the meeting.  Everyone except Russia wanted to keep production levels at current levels until March.  Russia wanted to be able to increase production by 500k barrels/day, even though the action might cause a dip in price on the market.  Russia is still upset at the sanctions being placed on them from the US, lead by Sen. Ted Cruz.  Where is Cruz from?  Texas.  What’s in Texas?  Largest shale oil play in America: The Permian Basin.  Russia is willing to run at depressed prices if it keeps the American oil industry from ramping back up.  Saudi Arabia on the other hand has been willing to give up market share in return for higher crude prices, gambling on demand increases coming later in the year.  So on Monday, when the meeting ended with a standstill, many of us thought that Russia might go rogue and prices could fall.  Instead, on Tuesday Saudi Arabia agreed to let Russia increase production, but offered an additional 1M barrel/day cut in production from their own supply!  The move was a total surprise.  Saudi Arabia basically gave the go-ahead to Russia to take their customers.  The move caused WTI prices to surge over 8% and continued to climb throughout the week.  When you couple this move with the issues in America and the continued devaluation of the US Dollar, I’m not seeing a lot of downward pressure on crude prices.  The only wild card hanging is the new COVID variant spreading around.  If the lockdowns across the globe make it to America, we could see a temporary demand shock.  However, President elect Biden has promised 100M vaccinations in the first 100 days and Dr. Fauci seemed to approve the process this week saying it’s very possible based on the plans he has read.  So although there is a chance for some depressed prices in Feb and March, the long term trend on crude prices seem to be higher prices.  In fact, Goldman Sachs revised their guidance to $65/barrel WTI by end of year 2021!  That would be exactly where crude prices were holding before the pandemic started.  The majority are all calling for $55-65/barrel WTI crude throughout the year which is a minimum $5/barrel higher than we are now.  Regardless, it seems that the days of cheaper gasoline and diesel could be short lived in 2021.

Local retail prices have risen due to the increase in cost.  I believe that gasoline prices will continue to hold over $2/gallon and diesel prices could breach $2.50/gallon in the coming weeks without some price relief.

Propane prices have been on an absolute run!  Propane prices have gone up 30 cents/gal in the last 45 days!  Even though we started the year at record level inventories, experienced a lack-luster corn drying season, and we are in a warmer winter than last year, inventories have dropped to lower levels than last year!  The culprit is record exports.  Production is at an all-time high and producers can’t fill ships fast enough to export to the rest of the world.  With WTI prices above $50/barrel, we are thinking that propane exports might start to slow down.  In fact, propane prices might DROP in February and March, in the middle of winter.  But stranger things have happened.  If exports continue at this rate, propane will be a very interesting commodity to watch.  Storage hubs usually trade between 40-55% crude prices.  We have seen 65-85% crude prices these days!  The spread is absolutely bonkers!  We will be watching the markets closely the first three months of the year as the situation continues to play out.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to give us a call.

Best regards,

Jon Crawford

Enough said! We could talk for hours looking into the rearview mirror on 2020.  And we will probably look into that rearview mirror from time-to-time for the rest of our lives.  But today, I am excited and optimistic for 2021!  Thank you again to everyone for all your patience, support, and understanding as we navigated the most difficult year in our lifetime.  Here’s to a better year in 2021 for the entire world!

Best regards,

Jon Crawford

Good morning,

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving weekend.  Markets continue to pick up steam as we look to close out this terribly tough and exhausting year in 2020.  The Biden transition is moving along and so far none of the moves are causing too many alarms.  In addition, vaccines and more vaccines are coming out as distribution chains assemble.  Most experts are moving predictions from June to April as the month we will really start to breath relief.  OPEC+ has decided to increase production a bit starting in January, but the move seems somewhat acceptable as the world anticipates reopening.  All of the positive market and COVID news is placing a visible finish line out there for everyone to see.  And the anticipation is leading to excitement.  However, all the news is coming at a cost.  More than 100k Americans are hospitalized across the country for COVID.  That is the most hospitalizations for any disease since the the Spanish Flu.  And many more Americans are going to die.  So as we see the end to the pandemic coming closer and closer, please remember that there is a major human cost still on the horizon and most of that cost will land during the holidays.  I believe the next two months will be extremely difficult and bitter-sweet as we start to plan our lives post COVID while watching thousands of more Americans die.

Please be safe and smart out there.  We have already suffered through almost an entire year of this pandemic and thousands of American families are forever changed.  The finish line is on the horizon and I hope we can come together and finish as safe and strong as possible ready to move forward in 2021.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us.

Best regards,

Jon Crawford

Good morning,

I hope this message finds you well.  As our country and the world is coming to terms with Biden as President-Elect, the markets have been behaving very bullish.  On Monday of this week, Pfizer announced that their vaccine is 90% in efficacy and will be distributed to 50M  Americans by the end of the year.  Dr. Fauci is also confident that the worst of the pandemic will be over by Q2 of next year following his belief that all Americans will have access to vaccines by the end of April 2021.  The news sent all markets on a rocket ship higher.  As the Republicans continue to hold control in the Senate, many believe that President-Elect Biden will not be able to achieve much success in very progressive agendas.  Therefore, many feel that the next four years will be steady with more balance back to the middle instead of a push to far left agendas.  But the vaccine party fizzled as the realty of over 120k+ cases of COVID/day plague our nation.  Markets took a breather to end the week and are starting to accept that although the vaccine news is some welcomed positive news, the next two months are going to be a lot of sickness and a lot of death.  The upcoming holiday season will probably be one of the most painful in our lifetimes.  But for the first time since the pandemic started, we are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.

In local news, Chicago differentials finally released their grip on cash spot pricing as harvest is coming to an end.  I don’t expect to see much price movement lower at the retail level, but at least the moves higher will likely stop.  I expect to see current retail prices hold through Thanksgiving unless something drastic happens.

Propane prices continue to hold strong even though inventories are robust.  If Wisconsin does not experience cold winter conditions by Christmas, I could see propane prices dropping in January of 2021 just like they did in 2020.  But a lot can happen between now and then.  Regardless, when looking at historical pricing, propane prices are still very low and competitive when comparing to natural gas or oil heat.  So the good news is that no matter what, whether you contracted or are riding the cash market, the heating costs for propane this coming season are a good value.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to give us a call.

Best regards,

Jon Crawford