U.S. INTEREST RATE traders expect the central bank to increase its target fed funds rate by two more quarter-points before July 2023 reaching 5.00-5.25% up from 4.50-4.75% at present. The forecast has increased by a quarter-point following stronger than expected employment data for January. The interest rate path has been repeatedly revised upward over the last year as inflationary pressures have proved more persistent than expected:
Ukraine suffers widespread blackouts after Russia targets grid
G7/Russia price cap expected to be in line with current oil price
OECD energy expenditure to reach 18% of GDP in 2022 ($BBG)
Germany keen to avoid trade war over energy subsidies ($BBG)
United States prepares to ease Venezuela oil sanctions ($WSJ)
U.S. GASOLINE inventories have remained much closer to normal, in contrast to distillates, with gasoline stocks just -9 million barrels (-4%) below the pre-pandemic five-year seasonal average on November 18:
EUROPE’s benchmark gas futures price for deliveries in January 2023 has continued to retreat and is now at €176 per megawatt-hour down from €346 shortly before the end of August:
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China’s climate is getting hotter and wetter (trans.)
China’s ultra-deep Tarim basin oil and gas wells (trans.)
¹ Most major corporations are starting to restrict travel and other routine expenses spending as they try to cope with rising inflation while maintaining earnings in line with forecasts and analysts’ expectations. Business spending reductions will flow through into slower growth in passenger aviation, hospitality and other business-related services. Spending controls will therefore amplify the broader business cycle slowdown that is already underway.
EUROPE’s major rivers are running very low as a result of the prolonged drought and temperatures well above normal. Recorded water depth on the Rhine at the Kaub gauging station has fallen to just 48 centimetres, the lowest seasonal level for more than a quarter of a century by a wide margin, severely restricting barge freight:
U.S. RETAIL GASOLINE prices have fallen for eight consecutive weeks by a total of -96 cents per gallon (-19%) since June 13. Retail diesel prices have declined for seven consecutive weeks by a total of -82 cents per gallon (-14%) since June 20.
Fuel-price reductions are mostly explained by the decline in international crude prices. Refining margins remain higher than before Russia invaded Ukraine. Diesel prices remain elevated compared with gasoline as a result of the global diesel shortage.
In the last two months, lower crude and fuel prices have been driven by the slowdown in the economy (actual and expected) and the pass-through from former price increases which have enforced changes in household and business behaviour and dampened consumption. In the next few months, if lower prices are sustained, they will relieve some pressure on household budgets and business operating costs, ease recessionary forces, and buy back some of the demand that was lost:
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¹ Physical crude markets are prompt cash markets and reflect the balance of production, consumption and inventories now. Financial markets reflect expectations about how production, consumption and inventories will evolve over the next 6-12 months or so and are anticipating a recession in future. There is only one price of oil. But near-term shortages are consistent with anticipating future surpluses as a result of an economic slowdown. The current strongly backwardated market structure implies oil is in very short supply right now (which has been evident from large and persistent inventory draw downs) but is expected to be more plentiful in 6-12 months time (as a result of an economic slowdown dampening oil consumption). The price structure embodies the cyclical behaviour of production, consumption, inventories and price levels:
LONDON temperatures continue to rise with the temperature at Heathrow reaching 36.3°C on July 18 up from a high of 30.6°C on July 17, with a further build in heat expected today:
U.K. POWER GRID is relying heavily on gas-fired generation to meet demand during the heatwave. Combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) have been supplying around 50% of total domestic generation in recent days:
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* Sharp increases in the cost of food and fuel have often acted as the trigger for unrest. In eighteenth century England, increases in grain prices as a result of bad harvests or war frequently led to local disturbances, usually targeting bakers, grain merchants and government storehouses, with magistrates often calling in soldiers to restore order. Fuel riots were less common but a sharp rise in the price of coal would normally trigger a parliamentary inquiry to investigate monopolistic practices and hoarding. Food and fuel price rises were always seen as politically sensitive and a potential threat to public order (“The Coal Industry of the Eighteenth Century”, Ashton and Sykes, 1929).
U.S. PETROLEUM INVENTORIES including the strategic petroleum reserve fell -1 million bbl to 1,678 million bbl last week. Stocks have fallen in 78 out of the last 105 weeks by a total of -440 million bbl since the start of July 2020. The most recent week saw an increase in crude inventories (+2 million bbl) but depletion of gasoline (-2 million), distillate fuel oil (-1 million) and jet fuel (-1 million).
The drawdown in fuel stocks in the week ending July 1 is likely associated with the impending public holiday on July 4, which will have seen inventories pulled forward from the primary distribution system of refineries, pipelines and bulk terminals (where they are recorded) into the secondary system of retailers and local fuel suppliers as well as end-users’ own storage tanks (where they are not recorded). It largely reversed a big build in gasoline, distillate and jet fuel the week before as stocks were pre-positioned ahead of the holiday demand:
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BRENT’s front-month futures price fell -$10.73 (-9.5%) on July 5. The decline came on a day with little new information about production or consumption but traders seemed to anticipate a higher probability of an economic slowdown. In percentage terms, the decline was the third-largest since July 2020 and 4.1 standard deviations away from average since 1990:
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China scrutinises Musk’s dual-use technologies ($FT)
SOUTHEAST ASIA’s gross refining margin for making gas oil from Dubai crude has climbed to a record $70 per barrel, up from $7 a year ago, as fuel supplies for freight and manufacturing remain at 14-year lows:
EAST CHINA’s temperatures have been 2-5°C higher than the long-term seasonal average since the middle of June, straining power supplies in the Lower Yangtze region and the provinces just to its north, including Jiangsu, Henan and up to Shandong:
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U.S. GASOLINE prices at retail level and adjusted for wages are now at the highest since 2013. Wage-adjusted gasoline prices are in the 94th percentile for all months since 1994, up from the 60th percentile at the end of 2021. At this level, demand destruction should be evident within the next few months:
FREEPORT LNG’s prolonged disruption is expected to reduce exports from the United States to Europe significantly and tighten the European gas market. Reduced pipeline flows from Russia are likely to worsen the shortfall.
The premium for gas delivered in Northwest Europe rather than at Louisiana’s Henry Hub next month has more than doubled to €109/MWh up from €50 on June 7.
Europe’s summer-winter calendar spread from July 2022 to January 2023 has reverted to a backwardation of almost €3/MWh from a contango of more than €14 on June 8 as traders anticipate the market will be tighter:
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U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE increased its target range for the federal funds rate by +75 basis points to 1.50-1.75%, the largest increase since 1994. In real terms, monetary policy has become increasingly stimulative because inflation has risen faster than rates. The real interest rate had fallen to -5.25% in May 2022 compared with -3.75% in May 2021 and +0.38% in May 2019. The large rise was designed to signal the central bank’s determination to bring inflation under control as well as to start making real interest rates less stimulative:
U.S. PETROLEUM INVENTORIES including the strategic reserve depleted by -3 million bbl to 1,682 million bbl last week. Inventories have fallen in 75 of the last 102 weeks by a total of -435 million bbl since the start of July 2020. Stocks are at the lowest seasonal level since 2008:
U.S. DISTILLATE INVENTORIES rose by +0.7 million bbl to 110 million bbl last week. East Coast stocks increased by +1.2 million bbl to 27 million bbl. But total stocks remain -27 million bbl (-19%) below the pre-pandemic five-year seasonal average. Although inventories have started to accumulate seasonally the deficit is not narrowing because refineries cannot make enough fuel to rebuild stocks:
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