MARKETWIRE ALERTS

MARKETWIRE ALERTS 

MarketWire Afternoon News May 22nd:

Updated at 5:00 PM ET 

* MarketWire will be closed for publication on Monday, May 25, for the Memorial Day holiday and will resume market coverage and news updates on Tuesday (5/26).

HEADLINES:

— CFTC: WTI Bullish Bets Rise Amid Iran Risks

— Baker Hughes: Weekly North America Rig Count Up by 21

— EIA to Publish WPSR on May 28 Due to Holiday

— PADD 4 Retail Gasoline Prices Soar Past U.S. Average

— Marathon Announces 7-Day Flaring at Carson, CA Refinery

— PBF Schedules 5-Day Flaring at Torrance, CA Refinery

— EIA: U.S. Refiners Pivot from Middle East to Venezuela

— AAR: Petroleum Carloads Up 9.8% for Week Ended May 16

NEWS:

CFTC: WTI Bullish Bets Rise Amid Iran Risks

Money managers raised their bullish bets in NYMEX West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude during the week ended May 19 as oil futures rallied on geopolitical risks tied to the Iran conflict, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data showed Friday (5/22).

Noncommercial long positions in WTI held by money managers rose by 12,803 contracts to 384,294 during the reference week, according to the weekly Commitment of Traders report of the CFTC.

Noncommercial short positions increased by a more modest 10,100 contracts to 211,714 during the same week, the CFTC said.

This caused the net noncommercial long position in WTI to rise by 2,703 contracts to 172,580. Open interest, meanwhile, fell by 78,977 contracts to 2,002,950.

Those moves came as WTI’s front-month contract on NYMEX hit three-week highs on May 19 on a report that NATO was debating deploying forces to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz if the energy chokepoint remains blocked into July.

Noncommercial spread positions in WTI declined by 30,616 contracts to 639,186 during the same week.

Total long positions in WTI futures shrank by 75,697 contracts to 1,924,105, while total short positions tumbled by 74,125 contracts to 1,951,934.

Baker Hughes: Weekly North America Rig Count Up by 21

North American energy drilling activity increased by 21 rigs this week, according to Baker Hughes’ weekly rigs report released Friday (5/22). The regional rig count for the week ended May 22 stood at 696, compared to 675 in the week prior.

Rigs for Canada and the U.S. combined were also higher than the 680 actively deployed in the same week last year.

This week’s rig changes were driven by gains in both Canada and the United States, which saw increases of 14 and seven rigs, respectively.

Canada’s count climbed to 138, which is above the 114 seen during the same time last year. The U.S. rig count reached 558, though it remained below the year-ago level of 566.

In the United States, oil rigs alone increased by 10 to 425. Conversely, the gas rig count fell by three to 125, and miscellaneous rigs remained unchanged at eight.

By trajectory, horizontal rigs stood at 486 and directional rigs at 54, after adding two rigs each. Vertical rigs increased by three to 13.

EIA to Publish WPSR on May 28 Due to Holiday

The Energy Information Administration will delay by a day its Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) due to next week’s Memorial Day holiday, the agency announced Friday (5/22).

The WPSR – typically published at 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday – will be released at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, because of the holiday on Monday, May 25, the EIA stated.

The “Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update”, a separate EIA report published on Tuesdays, will run next on Wednesday, May 27, the agency added.

PADD 4 Retail Gasoline Prices Soar Past U.S. Average

This Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year marking the beginning of the main summer driving season, Americans will pay the highest retail gasoline prices since 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update revealed earlier this week.

A gallon of regular grade gasoline at the pump averaged $4.49, up 42% year-on-year. The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the largest oil supply disruption in history, has sent prices soaring over the past two-and-a-half months and lifted retail fuel prices close to levels last seen in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Recent refinery outages have added to price pressure in some areas of the country. While overall retail gasoline prices edged lower by 1ct gallon last week, prices in the Rocky Mountain region bucked the nationwide trend, rising 21.5ct gallon. Planned and unplanned maintenance have over the past few weeks temporarily curbed supply in the Midwest and the Rockies, where a power outage led to the unplanned shutdown of Suncor’s Commerce City refinery in Colorado. Retail gasoline prices in PADD 4 consequently shot 9.7ct gallon past the national average to $4.587 gallon, up 47% year-on-year.

Marathon Announces 7-Day Flaring at Carson, CA Refinery

Marathon Petroleum has reported a scheduled ongoing flaring event at its 365,000 bpd Carson, California refinery, according to a notice filed with the South Coast Air Quality Management District seen on Friday (5/22).

The flaring, which began Thursday (5/21) at 2:33 p.m. PT and expected to continue through Thursday (5/28) 1:30 p.m. PT, is part of a “planned maintenance” event, Marathon said in the notice.

The Carson refinery has periodically reported flaring tied to maintenance work and operational adjustments as refiners across the U.S. West Coast prepare for peak summer fuel demand and tighter California gasoline specifications.

Marathon has reported five flaring events at Carson so far in May, including three tied to planned maintenance activity and two linked to emergency operational issues.

The latest filing comes as the West Coast refining system adjusts to capacity loss from the shutdown of Phillips 66’s 139,000 bpd Los Angeles refinery and ongoing idling of Valero’s 145,000 bpd Benicia plant that have together tightened regional fuel supply.

PBF Schedules 5-Day Flaring at Torrance, CA Refinery

PBF Energy has reported an ongoing flaring event at its 166,000 bpd Torrance, California refinery, a filing with the South Coast Air Quality Management District showed Friday (5/22).

The planned flare began on Wednesday (5/20) at 7:20 a.m. PT and is expected to end on Monday (5/25) at 11:59 p.m., said the notice, which called it a “startup/shut down” event.

The Torrance refinery has experienced multiple flaring events this year tied to planned maintenance activity and operational disruptions.

In an earnings guidance issued in January, PBF listed a turnaround schedule of 40-45 days for the Torrance refinery’s cracked hydrotreater (CHD) and hydrotreater (HDT) units in the first quarter. It gave a similar turnaround schedule for the hydrocracker unit at its Martinez refinery in California for the same quarter.

The maintenance alert for Torrance comes amid capacity constraints in California’s refining system, following the shutdown of Phillips 66’s 139,000 bpd Los Angeles refinery and the ongoing idling of Valero’s 145,000 bpd Benicia refinery.

EIA: U.S. Refiners Pivot from Middle East to Venezuela

Imports of Venezuelan crude clocked in at the fastest pace in seven and a half years last week as refiners were sourcing replacements for shut-in flows from the Persian Gulf, U.S. Energy Information Administration data revealed Wednesday (5/20).

Based on preliminary data, the EIA estimated that 713,000 bpd of Venezuelan crude oil arrived in the U.S. in the week ending May 15, marking the fastest weekly pace since September 2018. Over the past four weeks, they averaged more than 500,000 bpd, the most since early 2019.

Oil flows from Venezuela to the U.S. have rebounded this year following a U.S.-led regime change in January. Crude exports from the country were mostly heading to China before the capture of Maduro, with deliveries to the U.S. averaging around 100,000 bpd. Over the past month, however, more than half of the country’s oil exports were redirected to U.S. shores.

Access to the stream of high-density, sulfur rich oil in close proximity came just in time to feather the impacts of the largest oil supply disruption in history. U.S. refiners’ dependence on Middle Eastern crude oil has been waning for more than a decade, but some, particularly in California, still relied on the region as a source of medium and heavy sour grades.

Imports from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, meanwhile, have moved in the opposite direction. Intake of Saudi crude has collapsed under 200,000 bpd, and imports of Iraqi oil have clocked in below the 100,000-bpd mark in three out of the last four weeks. In February, the last month with available EIA data, they averaged 496,000 bpd and 254,000 bpd, respectively.

AAR: Petroleum Carloads Up 9.8% for Week Ended May 16

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) reports that petroleum and petroleum product carloads totaled 11,278 during the week ended May 16, up 9.8% from the same week a year ago.

Year-to-date, petroleum and petroleum products carloads totaled 207,741, up 8.8% from the corresponding period of the prior year, an AAR report published on Wednesday (5/20) showed.

Weekly traffic for the profiled week totaled 511,216, up 4.2% from the same week a year ago. Total carloads for the week ended May 16 reached 230,497, up 0.6% from the same week of last year.

Weekly intermodal volume was 280,719 containers and trailers, up 7.3% from the corresponding week of the prior year. Year-to-date, U.S. railroads reported carloads at 4,297,732, up 3.4% on the year.

Cumulative intermodal units were 5,262,810, up 0.9% from a year ago. Total rail traffic for the first 19 weeks of the year was 9,560,542 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.0% on the year.