Energy markets have kicked off the new month on the back foot, with oil prices sliding 3% in Wednesday’s intraday session following a surprise U.S. inventory build amid lingering uncertainty about future oil demand growth.  Weekly data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals crude stockpiles of 7.3 million barrels for the week to April 26, a sharp swing from a draw of 6.4 million barrels posted the previous week.   That marks the highest inventory levels since last June. Meanwhile, the Fed is expected…

We are nearly halfway through the earnings season, with 46% of S&P 500 companies having returned their first quarter scorecards. According to FactSet data, 77% of S&P 500 companies have exceeded earnings expectations while 60% have reported a positive revenue surprise.  Unfortunately, the energy sector has underperformed the market, thanks in large part to lower oil and gas prices. The Energy sector is reporting the second-largest (year-over-year) earnings decline of all 11 market sectors at -25.5% while Q1 2024 revenue growth…

Permian producers are not shutting in oil wells with associated natural gas despite the fact that the Texas regional gas price has been stuck at below-zero levels since early March. Major pipeline operators in the Permian basin haven't yet seen any effect of the negative gas prices at the Waha hub in West Texas on activity as producers are look to maximize oil realizations at West Texas Intermediate crude prices at above $80 per barrel. But the U.S. natural gas benchmark, Henry Hub, has been depressed below $2.00 per million British thermal…

The future of the global energy sector is caught up in a messy and misleading ideological debate. Depending on which politically informed echo chamber one inevitably finds themself confined to on social media, they are either told that the energy transition is a dangerous myth that will end in economic disaster and permanent rolling blackouts, or that clean energy is going to save the world overnight – as soon as conservatives get out of the way. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between.  The energy transition is strictly necessary.…

  Despite significant advancements in its renewable energy sector, the United Kingdom is lagging way behind where it needs to be in terms of clean energy development. The country needs a dramatic acceleration – more than double its recurrent rate – of clean energy deployment if it is to have any hope of meeting its own ambitious climate goals, which include a legally binding pledge to reach net zero by 2050. While the urgency and steepness of this acceleration curve grows greater every year, however, a lukewarm policy…

Beleaguered Texas-based Freeport LNG saw a second tanker leave for export on Wednesday, less than a week after the first, as the liquified natural gas plant recovers from a series of outages over the past month and a half, Reuters reports.  According to the news agency, citing data from financial firm LSEG, the Wilforce LNG tanker departed the Freeport terminal with a load of 85% of its capacity. Wilforce was preceded on April 23 by the departure of the first tanker in almost two weeks to have loaded Freeport LNG. As of Wednesday, Reuters…

Beleaguered Texas-based Freeport LNG saw a second tanker leave for export on Wednesday, less than a week after the first, as the liquified natural gas plant recovers from a series of outages over the past month and a half, Reuters reports.  According to the news agency, citing data from financial firm LSEG, the Wilforce LNG tanker departed the Freeport terminal with a load of 85% of its capacity. Wilforce was preceded on April 23 by the departure of the first tanker in almost two weeks to have loaded Freeport LNG. As of Wednesday, Reuters…

National Institute for Materials Science, Japan scientists have succeeded in simulating the magnetization reversal of Nd-Fe-B (neodymium iron boron) magnets. The simulation was made possible by using large-scale finite element models construction based on tomographic data obtained by electron microscopy. The research paper discussing the work has been published in the journal npj Computational Materials. a Acquisition of a series of FIB-SEM images for a hot-deformed Nd-Fe-B magnet (cropped area of 0.8 × 0.8 µm2…

Exports from the expansion of Canada’s TransMountain pipeline expansion project that launched on Wednesday may come in at only half of what the federal government is projecting, Canadian media have quoted traders and shippers as saying, citing loading restrictions and pilot and tub boat availability.  The Canadian government has projected that the TransMountain pipeline expansion project, which cost nearly $23 billion to complete, will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000…

Exports from the expansion of Canada’s TransMountain pipeline expansion project that launched on Wednesday may come in at only half of what the federal government is projecting, Canadian media have quoted traders and shippers as saying, citing loading restrictions and pilot and tub boat availability.  The Canadian government has projected that the TransMountain pipeline expansion project, which cost nearly $23 billion to complete, will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000…

New figures confirmed that the manufacturing sector slipped back into contraction in April as the sector suffered from uncertain demand and disruption in the Red Sea. S&P’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector showed a reading of 49.1 in April, slightly higher than the ‘flash’ estimate of 48.7 but down from 50.3 in March. The 50 mark separates growth from contraction. The survey confirmed that the manufacturing sector slipped back into contraction after March’s slight uptick. Prior to last…

Shell exited the Chinese power generation and trading markets effective end-2023, as it scales back its power business globally to focus on more profitable operations, the UK-based supermajor told Reuters on Wednesday. Shell, however, is not abandoning its EV charging business in China, which it sees as a major growth market, a spokesperson for Shell told Reuters. “We are selectively investing in power, focusing on delivering value from our power portfolio, which requires making difficult choices,” the supermajor said in a…

Shell exited the Chinese power generation and trading markets effective end-2023, as it scales back its power business globally to focus on more profitable operations, the UK-based supermajor told Reuters on Wednesday. Shell, however, is not abandoning its EV charging business in China, which it sees as a major growth market, a spokesperson for Shell told Reuters. “We are selectively investing in power, focusing on delivering value from our power portfolio, which requires making difficult choices,” the supermajor said in a…

With shares of CCJ tumbling earlier today after the company reported soggy Q1 earnings, despite its recent initiating coverage report by an enthusiastic Goldman Sachs which sees the Uranium company at the forefront of the "Next AI trade" and slapped it with a $55 price target (as we reported previously), the uranium trade suddenly found itself in need of a miracle. It got that after hours, when the Senate voted late on Tuesday to approve legislation banning the import of enriched uranium from Russia - the same Russia which supplies 25% of the uranium…

U.S. crude oil prices continued to plummet on Wednesday, falling over 3% and Brent crude right behind it, shedding over 2.8% on a surprise U.S. inventory build and uncertainty about interest rate cuts and the future of oil demand growth.  On Wednesday at 11:56 a.m. ET, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $79.44, down 3.04%, losing $2.49 per barrel on the day. Brent crude was trading at $83.90 per barrel, down 2.81% for a loss of $2.43 on the day.  Earlier on Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released…

Via Metal Miner It took about 24 months for the price of copper to reach the psychological mark of U.S. $10,000 per metric ton. Three-month copper futures on the London Metal Exchange (LME) touched the $10k mark last week. The last time copper crossed this threshold was in March 2022, when it reached $10,845 per ton in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many copper experts currently predict a continued uptick in the base metal’s price in the upcoming months, but for the wrong reasons. Be sure to stay ahead of the rising price…

One of Canada’s biggest oil and gas companies, Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE), booked higher-than-expected earnings for the first quarter of 2024 amid strong oil and gas production and record throughput volumes at its refineries.   Cenovus reported on Wednesday nearly doubled earnings per share of $0.45 (C$0.62) for Q1 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. The earnings were higher than the average analyst estimate of $0.39 (C$0.54), according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. For the first quarter of 2024, refining throughput…

One of Canada’s biggest oil and gas companies, Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE), booked higher-than-expected earnings for the first quarter of 2024 amid strong oil and gas production and record throughput volumes at its refineries.   Cenovus reported on Wednesday nearly doubled earnings per share of $0.45 (C$0.62) for Q1 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. The earnings were higher than the average analyst estimate of $0.39 (C$0.54), according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. For the first quarter of 2024, refining throughput…

Crude oil prices went lower today after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an inventory increase of 7.3 million barrels for the week to April 26. This compared with a substantial draw of 6.4 million barrels for the previous week that pushed prices temporarily higher last week. In gasoline, the authority reported an inventory rise of 300,000 barrels for last week, which compared with a modest draw of 600,000 barrels for the week before. Gasoline production averaged 9.4 million barrels daily in the week to April…

Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States fell in April for a fourth month in a row, as the Freeport export facility continues to struggle with operational issues and outages, according to data from financial firm LSEG       cited by Reuters. U.S. LNG exports dropped to 6.19 million metric tons in April, down from 7.61 million tons exported in March, per LSEG data released on Wednesday. Europe continued to be the top export destination for American LNG, but its share of all U.S. sales fell to 52.5%…