Petroleum futures continued higher in the overnight session on Monday amid news that major US fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline had to shut pipelines due to a cyberattack, weakness in the US dollar and mostly higher trade in US stock market index futures, despite flat-to-lower trade in European equities. It was a quiet morning with a quiet day ahead on the economic calendar.
Reuters reports that Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline in the US, said that its main fuel lines remain shut after a cyberattack forced the system to shut days ago, but that some smaller lines between terminals and delivery points are now operating. Colonial's 5,500-mile system ships over 2.5mb/d of gasoline and distillates from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast. As one might expect, both the diesel and gasoline crack spreads were widening, with gains of about 1.3% in ULSD and RBOB futures, whereas WTI futures were up 0.8% as of this writing. The White House was working closely with Colonial to help recover pipelines.
Asian stock markets closed flat to higher overnight with the Hang Seng edging down 0.05%, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.27% and the Nikkei added 0.55%. In economic news, the UK Halifax House Price Index was a beat as home prices rose 1.4% last month, above forecasts at 0.8%. As of this writing, the FTSE was up 0.03%, while the DAX and the CAC 40 had lost 0.17% and 0.25%, respectively. US stock market index futures were trading mixed this morning as futures for the Nasdaq were down 0.35%, whereas S&P 500 futures had edged up 0.10% and Dow futures were up 0.33%. The US dollar index was down 0.05%, which is supportive for crude.
Petroleum futures strengthened on Friday amid gains in equities and weakness in the US dollar, despite a rise of 2 in the US oil rig count by Baker Hughes. WTI crude rose 19 cents to settle at $64.90/bbl and Brent crude also added 19 cents to close at $68.28/bbl. RBOB futures settled 1.32 cents higher at $2.1269/g and ULSD (HO) futures gained 2.11 cents to $2.0106/g. According to Platts, the New York Harbor ULSHO barge differential to NYMEX weakened by 25 points to -19.00c/g, while ULSD and ULSHO barge differentials held steady at +0.40c/g and -26.00c/g, respectively. Also per Platts, propane prices made mixed moves on Friday as Mt. Belvieu LST prices fell 25 points to 79.500c/g and non-LST prices weakened by 75 points to 79.750c/g. On the other hand, Conway spot prices strengthened 50 points to average 77.750c/g.
Natural gas futures rose 3.0 cents on Friday, settling at $2.958/mmBtu with a tighter US market balance expectation for this week and a stronger two-week degree day forecast. The National Hurricane Center sees no tropical cyclones in the Atlantic in the next 48 hours.
