DOE CRUDE STATS | May 04, 2011

A lesson in contrasts

This week’s DOE numbers show patterns in critical inventory numbers that are as contrasting as they are market-impacting. Commercial crude oil inventories, which are just 8.7m bbl under the all-time record high hit in 2009, built +3.4m bbl to 366.5m bbl, while gasoline stocks continued to plummet in PADD I and across the county. PADD I gasoline stocks drew -1.7m bbl to 48.0m bbl, and are now at their lowest level since Oct. 2008. Underlying the week’s crude build was a 389 kb/d slowdown in.....

CFTC COT | April 29, 2011

April 29, 2011

Please find attached data and charts detailing the latest CFTC Commitments of Traders Report for the week ending April 26. We focus on net length of non-commercial traders as well as net length of money managers and swap dealers as indicated in the disaggregated data for WTI , natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil. Y-T-D inflows (+$33.10 billion) are now at the highest level since our calculations began in 2006. Index investment has been on a streak lately, climbing for the sixth consecuti.....

DOE CRUDE STATS | April 27, 2011

The crude also rises

The size of the +6.2m bbl headline build this week surprised to the upside. The build was the largest since July 2010. Driving the build in crude stocks was a 1.2 mb/d jump in crude imports, which rose to 9.3 mb/d, while crude runs were little changed at 14.1 mb/d. What is particularly significant about the build is that it more than offsets last week’s much-vaunted -2.3m bbl draw. The headline crude build stands in contrast to the -0.7m bbl draw in Cushing. Barring a repeat of the summer of 201.....

CFTC COT | April 25, 2011

April 25, 2011

Please find attached data and charts detailing the latest CFTC Commitments of Traders Report for the week ending April 19. We focus on net length of non-commercial traders as well as net length of money managers and swap dealers as indicated in the disaggregated data for WTI , natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil. Index investment climbed for the fifth consecutive week during the week ending April 19, and recorded another large jump (+$7.52 billion). Y-T-D inflows now stand at $28.67 bill.....

DOE CRUDE STATS | April 20, 2011

Gasoline's spring cleaning

Gasoline inventories are in the spotlight again this week, drawing -1.6m bbl to come to 51.3m bbl and chalking up the eighth straight week of declines. The draw brings the last two weeks’ inventory drop to 8.8m bbl, after last week’s exceptional -7.0m bbl draw. Gasoline stocks now stand 16.8m bbl lower yoy. Despite the stock draw, apparent gasoline demand declined 0.12 mb/d to 9.06 mb/d. Four-week average gasoline demand remains depressed below even the weak levels of 2009, due in part to the fa.....

CFTC COT | April 15, 2011

April 15, 2011

Please find attached data and charts detailing the latest CFTC Commitments of Traders Report for the week ending April 12. We focus on net length of non-commercial traders as well as net length of money managers and swap dealers as indicated in the disaggregated data for WTI , natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil. The non-commercial net long position (from last week) flipped back to a net short position in the natural gas market this week, two weeks after short covering had pushed the non.....

DOE CRUDE STATS | April 13, 2011

Gasoline's vanishing act

The most notable data point from this week’s DOE stats was a whopping -7.0m bbl draw in total gasoline stocks, the largest since Oct. 1998, which reduced US gasoline storage to 209.7m bbl. Although a gasoline draw this time of year is hardly unusual—US inventories of the product have been on a continuous weekly decline since Feb. 11—the size of the draw may be extraordinary enough to give pause to predictions that sky-high retail prices around the country have destroyed gasoline demand. But th.....

CFTC COT | April 08, 2011

April 08, 2011

Please find attached data and charts detailing the latest CFTC Commitments of Traders Report for the week ending April 5. We focus on net length of non-commercial traders as well as net length of money managers and swap dealers as indicated in the disaggregated data for WTI , natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil. Index investment in the commodity markets jumped the most this week (+$8.63 billion) since the week of October 27, 2009. Index investors pushed in +$5.75 billion into the energy .....

DOE CRUDE STATS | April 06, 2011

Pain at the pump?

Apparent demand gasoline demand weakened this week, falling 112 kb/d below year-ago levels on a four-week average basis. Domestic mogas demand may be sitting on shaky ground—a fact that may have been obscured recently in the weekly data by strong exports. Although a drop in exports may be partly responsible for the fall in apparent demand, economic forces are likely dampening domestic gasoline demand, such as soaring retail prices and a hurting American consumer. Meanwhile, crude production in t.....

CFTC COT | April 01, 2011

April 01, 2011

Please find attached data and charts detailing the latest CFTC Commitments of Traders Report for the week ending March 29. We focus on net length of non-commercial traders as well as net length of money managers and swap dealers as indicated in the disaggregated data for WTI , natural gas, gasoline, and heating oil. A wave of short covering flipped the non-commercial net short position to a net long position this week. This is the first time that non-commercials have been net long since the.....