Holding Steady

Good morning,

Crude prices have remained largely unchanged for the week.  Prices have traded in a very narrow range as vaccine distribution, information on new COVID variants, national crude oil inventories, and economic data were released.  I do believe a $50/barrel floor in WTI crude prices is very solid at the moment.  Although there is much uncertainty with the new Covid variants, the vaccines in current distribution seem to at least cause less severe illness with the new variants.  Commodities are taking a bullish tone to start 2021 and I tend to agree.  The road will be bumpy with vaccine rollout and there will be still be more infection.  However, if the data holds true, severe illness will less, especially with the introduction of the J&J vaccine that only requires one dose.  The one potential downside risk for crude hanging out there is Iran.  Pres Biden has made it clear that he would like to negotiate with Iran on a new nuclear deal.  If a deal is made and sanctions are released on crude oil exports, the market could be flooded with crude at a time of rebalance and careful production cuts.  If this happens, I do think any downside movement would be short-lived.  In summary, I still believe that there is much more upside risk than downside risk for crude oil prices in 2021.

In local retail news, retail prices of gasoline and diesel are holding steady.  I do not expect to see any major movement at the pumps in the coming week.  I also believe that gasoline prices under $2/gallon are behind us.

Propane prices have balanced somewhat from the “short squeeze” in January.  Although retail prices have dropped a bit from multi-year highs, I don’t expect them to drop too much more very soon.  I tend to think that prices will slowly unwind as we finish up winter.  The weather in the Midwest and Eastern US has been so unpredictable.  However, the demand from China and other parts of Asia has started to let up as they finish up a cold, hard winter.  And the arb on American exports has brought European propane back into the competition, so American exports have the potential to slow a bit in February.  For now, all eyes are on February.  As a reminder, please keep your driveway clean and a clear path to your tank to ensure a safe and efficient propane delivery.

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

Best regards,

Jon Crawford

 

New President and Propane Short Squeeze

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

Conway Propane Price Blowout

Good morning,

I hope this message finds you well.  President Trump was impeached a second time this week and the markets didn’t seem to flinch.  WTI crude prices continue to hold on to gains with renewed hopes that demand will continue to improve going through the year.  IEA kept their forecast for daily crude consumption unchanged which was actually support to current prices.  Now that WTI is holding above the psychological $50/barrel, I believe that more headwinds will need to appear in order to push prices back below $50/barrel.  One of the main supports to higher prices is the potential for another $1.9 trillion dollar coronavirus relief bill proposed by President Elect Joe Biden.  The continued devaluation of the dollar will support crude price futures that are held against the US Dollar.  The US will be in a tricky situation as the economy tries to fully reopen with increased energy costs.  If the new $1.9 trillion dollar package passes we will be in a very tight balancing act.

In local news, gasoline and diesel prices continue to hold.  Retail gasoline prices are above $2/gallon and retail diesel prices are hovering near $2.50/gallon.  I do not expect to see any relief on pump prices in the coming weeks.

Propane is the story of the week.  Due to continued increased demand from China who is having a record cold winter, the US continues to produce record amounts of propane and export at record rates.  Months ago, we were looking at the largest glut of propane supply in history.  Now, inventories have fallen below the five year average and we are still in January.  Speculation and unregulated runs on Conway/Belvieu are somewhat to blame as base prices and indexes have increased over 50 cents/gal since the beginning of September.  This is over a 70% increase in cost of propane in six weeks!  To put this in perspective, that would be retail gasoline going from $2/gallon to $2.85/gallon in six weeks!  If that happened, the news would be talking.  But propane trading and exports continue to go unnoticed and unregulated.  We are allowing suppliers to export our national supply to China and the US consumer is footing the bill.  Suppliers are winning on both fronts.  I have been saying for years, propane is a need based commodity during six months of the year.  The propane export business is new within the last ten years.  Nothing has been done to protect our national supply from being fully exported and leaving the US with supply shortages and record price increases.  I am hoping that we see a price decline to start the first week in February.  If not, propane prices could get ugly.

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

Best regards,

Jon Crawford

Curve Ball From Saudi Arabia And Surging Propane Exports

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

Happy New Year!

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