Energy OverView January 8, 2013

Oil prices ended the day modestly higher, yesterday, and the market is seeing further gains in overnight trading. The snake-bit Motiva refinery experienced another shutdown and delay in putting its new unit into service, and one other small refinery issues helped to support refined product prices.… Read more

Energy OverView January, 7 2013

Oil prices continue to show resilience, maintaining the holiday week gains, which had a good deal of support from the investment community. Speculative length grew to its largest amount in 11 weeks, according to CFTC data. While the rally was dismissed as a low-volume, low-conviction event, there were obviously some eager beavers in there working at some last minute p&l repair.… Read more

Energy OverView January 3, 2013

Not to be left out of the fiscal cliff party, oil prices have furthered their recent gains, trading above $93.00 per barrel. The fiscal cliff deal is mostly stimulative, with the extension of tax cuts without spending cuts. The lapse on the payroll tax holiday will hurt a little, but not enough to weigh down the overall economy.… Read more

Energy OverView December 19, 2012

WTI has rallied above $89 per barrel and Brent looks poised to take out $110. Prices are being supported a reported draw in US crude oil inventories by the API last night, as year-end destocking takes place for tax reasons. It appears that all fracking in the world can’t offset the immovable object that is the tax code.… Read more

Energy OverView December 18, 2012

WTI futures mounted a rally that was mostly attributed to progress on the fiscal cliff negotiations. There was another technical aspect at work that helped support WTI at the expense of Brent. A rehash of a story that Enbridge was moving up full operation of its Seaway pipeline to January was around the market.… Read more