- Yesterday’s survey results are posted at the bottom of the First Look
- WTI is down 22c to $55.32/Bbl, and Brent is flat to $61.59/Bbl
- China has pushed back on President Trump’s request for Beijing to commit to big purchases of American farm products
- It has become a major sticking point to end the China-US trade war, according to people briefed on current negotiations (Reuters)
- China wants the ability to buy product based on market conditions while Trump has announced publicly that China could buy as much as $50 billion of US farm products
- On Tuesday, a US administration said the two sides might not agree to a “Phase One” deal by mid-November
- EIA weekly data is due at 9:30 AM CST
- U.S. Crude Inventories: – 104 MBbls (Bloomberg surveys)
- U.S. Gasoline Inventories: – 2,040 MBbls
- U.S. Distillate Inventories: – 2,277 MBbls
- U.S. Refinery Utilization: + 0.72% change
- Natural gas is up 4.5c to $2.684/MMBtu
- Equity markets are rewarding natural gas producers who proved that they have reduced drilling activity, as well as plan to continue to keep growth rates subdued in the future (WSJ)
- Appalachian gas producers have seen shares jump as much as 16% on news of using cash to pay down debt, as opposed to aggressively growing drilling programs
- Many other upstream producers could maintain this slowdown in activity if markets continue to reward these moves, especially if commodity prices remain depressed
- Midstream provider, OneOK, is calling for over 20% earnings growth in 2020, according to their CEO
- Earnings growth is anticipated to be driven by natural gas and NGL infrastructure, with projects aimed at reducing flaring in the Williston Basin
- Roughly 60% of the company’s capital spending on growth projects, for 2019, were geared towards NGLs
- The December contract is now prompt and is maintaining some momentum from the previous two days of trading
- The November ‘19 contract rallied approximately $0.29/MMBtu before rolling off, the December ’19 is up 6c before market open
