Category: The Energy OverView

The petroleum complex posted losses across-the-board, yesterday. RBOB gasoline and heating oil fell hard, and WTI and Brent crude broke through key, psychological support levels. The combination of the Syria deal and the resumption of Libyan oil production weighed on prices.… Read more

Crude oil prices continue to fall, as the two-pronged issue of real and imagined supply threats recede. The imagined is Syria, and that situation is in full diplomatic attenuation for now. The UN did declare with finality that Sarin gas was used, but the US and Russia are still battling over who did it.… Read more

You can say goodbye to the Syria risk premium, at least the part attributable to a US military strike anyway. The fighting will rage on, but the spillover concerns should remain contained. The Yom Kippur observance passed without incident over the weekend, and whatever is going on in Egypt, it is not making the news.… Read more

Oil prices are higher this morning, but are covering the same tired ground of the past several weeks. This morning, the oil market was greeted by an op-ed by Russian President Putin, which highlighted his calculating ways. He speaks of growing trust between himself and President Obama, but cracks on Obama for embracing the centuries old concept of American exceptionalism.… Read more

It is the second-time around for the removal of the Syrian military strike premium from oil prices. The first spike above $112 was met by a call for congressional approval for action by President Obama, and, yesterday, it became clear that the Kerry-gaffe cum breakthrough has eliminated the possibility of a military strike in the near-term.… Read more

The recent surge in crude oil prices was driven by the imagined fears over supply disruptions due to a possible military strike on Syria, and underpinned by the reality of lost oil output from Libya and other countries. We keep referring to it as the sizzle and the steak.… Read more

WTI crude oil prices finished the week on a high note, driven upward by the concerns over Syria and the deteriorating situation in Libya. The rally on Friday seemed more to do with Syria, as good old fashioned pre-weekend, short-covering set in, just in case the rockets flew over the weekend, after all.… Read more

WTI oil prices have climbed above $109 per barrel, in early trading, supported the real oil output outages that we have chronicled all week and the imagined fears over the fallout from a possible military strike on Syria. We use the word “possible” because the support for a strike on Syria by the House of Representatives is barely there.… Read more

Oil prices continue to churn in the face of the declining global output and the possibility of a military strike on Syria. Interestingly, while good news, in the form of terrific auto sales, was good news for the equity markets, it was not good news for the oil and gold, as the prospects for Fed tapering increased.… Read more

The essential item of the day is that Libyan oil output continues to plummet, and is now below 250k bpd with exports around 80k bpd, according to Reuters. The tally of outages from oil producing countries, due to sanctions, theft, and civil strife, is over 3.0 million bpd.… Read more