- WTI is down 965c to $31.63/Bbl, and Brent is down 1040c to $34.87/Bbl
- Oil prices fell 31%, in a matter of seconds, at the start of trading yesterday, equating to the second-worst single-day loss on record for both Brent and WTI
- The oil price collapse was the result of Saudi Arabia lowering their official selling price (OSP) into Europe by $8, the deepest cut to the country’s main grades in nearly 20 years
- OPEC members will also no longer be required to abide by production cuts come April 1
- This decision comes after OPEC and Russia failed to reach an agreement to curb an additional 1.5 MMBbls/d of production
- Aramco has allegedly told some market participants that they could raise production above 10 MMBbls/d by next month, they have the capacity to reach 12 MMBbls/d of output
- Saudi Arabia currently produces approximately 9.7 MMBbls/d
- According to Bloomberg, more than 115,000 Brent and WTI prompt-month contracts changed hand in the first hour of trading yesterday
- This amount of activity exceeded the volume that was done in the first hour of trading after the Saudi oil attack
- The CFTC reported that managed money short positions increased from 81,417 contracts to total 112,980 contracts
- This number does not include Friday or Sunday’s selloff and is likely much higher now
- Natural gas is down 6.6c to $1.642/MMBtu
- March’s Heating Degree Day forecast has been revised lower to 535 HDDs total; this would make it the fifth warmest March of all time according to the Commodity Weather Group
- Prompt-month natural gas prices recently hit 21-year lows
- The CFTC reported that managed money short positions, in natural gas, fell from 473,574 contracts total to 435,557
- Managed money long positions also fell from 163,880 contracts to 146,006 total
- NextDecade’s 3.5 Bcf/d Rio Grande LNG facility received FERC approval to move forward with site preparation
- The company has yet to make a Final Investment Decision (FID), but is targeting sometime in 2020
