Oil prices gained roughly 18 percent in January, the largest gain for that month of the year on record. “A break through $55 in WTI and $65 in Brent would be a very bullish signal for these and could be the catalyst for more significant upside, with oil having stabilised over the last few weeks following the post-Christmas bounce,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at brokerage OANDA,
wrote in a briefing. Prices lost ground on Thursday, but there are plenty of bullish landmines lurking in the market, ranging from Venezuela and Iran outages, OPEC+ cuts, and slowing U.S. shale growth.
U.S. considers SPR release. The U.S. government is considering a
release of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), timed with potential outages from Venezuela. Venezuela has exported roughly 500,000 bpd to the U.S., and because of American sanctions, those volumes are now in jeopardy. The only problem is that the SPR does not contain heavy crude. Already the market for heavy oil is tight while that for lighter oil is much looser.
U.S. refiners looking for alternatives to Venezuela. U.S. refiners that import heavy oil from Venezuela are now looking for alternatives. Canada and Mexico have heavy oil, but have little scope to increase supply. “The region with the biggest shortfall of Venezuelan crudes, either through sanctions or inadvertently through further production declines is the U.S.,” said Michael Tran, commodity strategist at RBC Capital Markets, in a note. U.S. domestic medium and heavy sour grades, including Mars Sour, have seen their prices jump. “It’s nuts. Everything with sulfur in it is getting bid,” one U.S. crude trader told
Reuters, referring to sour oil that is typically less desired.
Valero (NYSE: VLO),
Chevron (NYSE: CVX), and of course,
Citgo, are the largest importers of Venezuelan oil.
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