- WTI is down $1.13 to $61.57/Bbl, and Brent is down 89c to $67.38/Bbl
- Oil prices are down this morning after being up nearly $4/Bbl to $65.85/Bbl for WTI – following Iranian rocket attacks on American forces in Iraq last night
- Rhetoric from both President Trump and Iran’s foreign minister appeared to deescalate further conflict
- It also became clear that Iran’s targeted response did not affect oil infrastructure, leading prices to retreat from their initial surge
- No one from the U.S. was killed in the attack that we know of so far
- Front month trading volume for WTI surged to record the busiest opening hour of trading (7 a.m. in Singapore) in almost four months, following the missile attacks (Bloomberg)
- More than 55k trades were booked for prompt WTI, the heaviest volume since Sept. 16, when a drone strike struck Saudi oil infrastructure
- Typical volume for WTI’s opening hour is usually under 5k contracts
- EIA weekly data is due at 9:30 AM CST
- U.S. Crude Inventories: – 3,185 MBbls (Bloomberg surveys)
- U.S. Gasoline Inventories: + 2,700 MBbls
- U.S. Distillate Inventories: + 3,956 MBbls
- U.S. Refinery Utilization: + 0.06% change
- Natural gas is up 0.9c to $2.171/MMBtu
- Prompt-month gas prices have seen some slight improvements as the 11-to-15-day forecast added 7 Heating Degree Days overnight
- Colder-than-normal temperatures are moving into the Midwest; however, the east coast currently remains normal to slightly-colder-than-normal
- Technical peak winter is January 15, as we move past that date, we get closer to the spring shoulder season, lowering the chances of bringing sustained arctic weather to spur a demand driven rally
- The 1.5 Bcf/d Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) has faced another setback as a key air permit for a compressor station in southern Virginia was vacated
- The same court that vacated the air permit, also vacated key permits that would allow the ACP to cross the Appalachian Trail
- The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on the revoked Appalachian Trail permits in June, which will be key in determining the long-delayed pipeline’s fate
- Flows on the 2.6 Bcf/d Sur-de-Texas pipeline increased 0.3 Bcf/d to total 1.1 Bcf (PointLogic)
- Exports to Mexico are measured at 5.6 Bcf, a significant improvement from Christmas when exports sat slightly above 3.0 Bcf
