THE PHYSICAL OIL MARKET IS SAYING WE ARE ABOUT TO SEE THE LARGEST CRUDE STORAGE DRAW SINCE 2011 / SEEKING ALPHA

The Physical Oil Market Is Saying We Are About To See The Largest Crude Storage Draw Since 2011

by: HFIR

 

 

Summary

 

- Oil prices are down slightly today. We attribute the weakness to speculators dumping long exposures to wait on the sidelines ahead of the OPEC+ JMMC meeting.

- Physical timespreads continue to improve, which contradicts the financial price sell-off.

- Crack spreads continue to improve, albeit falling slightly today. US refinery throughput is about to ramp materially in the coming weeks.

- As the physical oil market begs for more supplies, we expect that things will only get tighter as global refineries start ramping up throughput just as global oil-on-water is at the lowest in 3 years.

- The steep backwardation in the Brent timespreads tells us we are about to witness the largest crude drawdown since 2011.

          

Oil prices are pulling back slightly today with Brent underperforming WTI and narrowing the Brent-WTI spread. The move today appears to be speculators dumping long positions going into the OPEC+ JMMC meeting. In the case of surprises, speculators are taking the cautionary stance of being on the sidelines. While, on the macro front, it appears the China/US trade war is heating up leading to lower risk appetite for those betting on oil prices.

 

But, on the physical market, the divergence continues with the Brent 1-2 timespread moving up, while Brent 2-3 is flat on the day despite the sell-off. WTI timespreads are also improving, which might indicate that storage draws are coming, although the spreads are still in contango, which is still an illustration that the US crude market remains oversupplied.

 

 

Brent 1-2

 

Brent 2-3

 

WTI 1-2

 

 

WTI 2-3

 

 

Brent-WTI

 

 

321 Crack Spreads vs WTI

Source: CME, HFI Research

 

 

321 Crack Spreads vs Brent

 

 

Source: CME, HFI Research

 

 

As you can see from the charts above, the physical oil market remains healthy despite headline macro concerns. Whatever financial speculators are doing today, the physical oil traders are completely ignoring. For the US market, we know that unplanned outages continue to dampen US refinery throughput which has led to crude builds over the last month. But this is going to change within the next few weeks as high 321 crack spreads indicate higher refinery runs.

Global oil-on-water

 

 

In addition, another metric we track closely is the global oil-on-water, which has reached the lowest level over the last 3 years. The decline since the start of May comes from a steep dropoff in Iranian crude exports which tanker tracking services are pegging at ~500k b/d. Logistical issues in the near term are capping Iranian exports, but we don't expect this to sustain going forward.

 

But this confirms the physical oil market's appetite for crude as a lack of oil-on-water just means less supplies globally. As global refineries ramp up into the summer, the physical oil market situation will only get tighter and tighter, which will eventually translate into higher financial oil prices. Our view is that the algos, along with energy investors, are staying on the sidelines until they see evidence of storage draws, but especially in the US. Once US storage starts to drop, that's when the fund flows will return.

 

For our UWT trade, we remain long and holding till $69 to $70/bbl target. The steep backwardation in the Brent timespreads tells us we are about to witness the largest crude drawdown since 2011.

 

Source: IEA