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The global oil market has been on a rollercoaster since late February, but the price reaction to the largest supply disruption in history has been relatively muted. The calm was not complacency; buffers were there to absorb the shock. But the system that held for four weeks is no longer the system we are operating in today. The oil market did not underreact to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz; it absorbed it. For nearly four weeks, markets have shown remarkable resilience in the face of disruption, supported by a combination of pre-war surplus,…
The United States energy grid is in an extremely vulnerable position. Aging and underfunded, the grid is already being stressed to its limits by skyrocketing energy demand on the part of data centers as well as increasingly complicated energy flows introduced by solar and wind power. Building and maintaining a resilient energy grid will require a huge investment into expanding, reinforcing, and updating the grid – but in the meantime, all that expansion leaves the United States extremely vulnerable to cyberattack, according to security experts.…
The war in the Middle East and the halt of about 20% of global LNG trade flows are strengthening the case for increased LNG exports out of Western Canada. The political stability and the proximity to Asian markets make Canada’s Pacific Coast the perfect source of additional LNG supply to ease the strain on gas markets, which suddenly flipped from an expected glut for the rest of the decade to a major supply shortage that would take years to overcome. Canada would have been ideally positioned to fill in the gap. If only it had more than one…
The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 2.3 million barrels in the week ending March 20. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories rose by 6.556 million barrels. Analysts had expected a draw of 1.3 million barrels in the current reporting period. Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have stayed at 415.4 million barrels for multiple weeks in a row as of the week ending March 20. This is 310.1 million barrels shy of maximum capacity. US production fell for the fourth…
Oil prices were spiking again in early Asian trade on Tuesday, reversing part of the previous session’s steep losses as Iran denied claims that it had engaged in negotiations with the U.S. At the time of writing, West Texas Intermediate had climbed to $91.54, up 3.87%, while Brent crude had risen 3.43% to $103.40. The rebound follows a dramatic selloff on Monday, when Brent briefly fell below $100 per barrel for the first time since March 11 after President Trump claimed Washington had held “very good and productive” conversations…
