U.S. natural gas futures were little changed on Thursday ahead of a weekly gas storage report expected to show a bigger-than-usual build, overshadowing support from forecasts for warmer weather. Front-month gas futures NGc1 for July delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange traded flat at $2.33 per million British thermal units at 9:56 a.m. EDT. Data provider Refinitiv forecast the number of cooling degree days (CDDs) in the coming two weeks to rise to 167, above the 30-year normal of 149. CDDs measure the number of degrees a day’s average ...

U.S. crude oil production averaged 12.4 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending June 2, up by 200,000 b/d from the previous week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. The figure rose by 500,000 b/d over this time last year, according to the EIA. More than 80 percent of the U.S. crude oil production growth comes from the country’s Lower 48 states, which does not include production from Alaska and the Federal Offshore Gulf of Mexico, according to the EIA. The United States has been ...

The rebound in western Canadian natural gas production has stalled this month, as wildfires across Alberta have accelerated recently amid dry weather and heat warnings from government authorities. Total Canadian gas production was estimated at 17.7 Bcf/d June 7—down from a peak of more than 18 Bcf/d in late May. Prior to the outbreak of wildfires across Alberta in early May, Canadian gas production had averaged about 18.5 Bcf/d from January through April, legacy IHS PointLogic data from S&P Global Commodity Insights showed. Despite the slump in Canadian gas production, ...

Asia’s spot cash premiums for 10 ppm sulphur gasoil rose to a near two-month high of 56 cents a barrel as buying interest remained strong in the open trading market. There was speculation of short covering following lower diesel production expected up to September from Australia’s Viva Energy after an accident during a planned maintenance. Offers remained scant as heavy expectations of much fewer cargoes coming from the Middle East to Asia for July arrival stayed prevalent, given possibly better netbacks to northwest Europe after cracks there rose in the ...

Wholesale British and Dutch gas prices rose on Thursday morning after two days of declines, bolstered by the extension of an unplanned outage at Norway’s Hammerfest liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to June 14 because of technical challenges. However, Strong storage build and mild weather are expected to keep demand low and limit the upside. The benchmark Dutch front-month contract TRNLTTFMc1 rose by 1.25 euros to 28 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0903 GMT, Refinitiv Eikon data shows. The Dutch day-ahead day contract TRNLTTFD1 was 1.85 euros up at ...

Oil prices fell $3 a barrel on Thursday as demand weakness and a report the U.S. and Iran may be approaching a deal on oil exports outweighed expectations of tighter Saudi supply and a potential pause to U.S. interest rate hikes. Oil fell on a news report, citing sources, that Iran and the U.S. are nearing a temporary deal that would trade some sanctions relief in exchange for reducing Iran’s uranium enrichment. Brent crude was down $2.20, or 2.86%, at $74.64 a barrel by 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT), having ...

Asia’s naphtha refining profit margin fell deeper into the negative on Thursday and the structure flipped into contango again after a brief session of backwardation. The discount on naphtha crack rose to $8.63 a tonne over Brent crude from $2.45 a tonne in the last session. The second-half July naphtha traded 25 cents cheaper than the following month. Ample supplies and persisting tepid demand from petrochemical units weighed on markets, trade sources said. Meanwhile, India’s HPCL sold 21,000-23,000 tonnes of naphtha to the energy trading arm of Total for loading ...

Saudi Arabia’s decision to deepen its crude oil production cuts, without matching contributions from its allies, underscores how the market is being skewed by a series of contradictory influences. The world’s biggest oil exporter said it will cut about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in July, even though the rest of the OPEC+ group decided against any further joint action at its meeting in Vienna on Sunday. It had been widely expected that OPEC+, which consists of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, would ...

The International Energy Agency is bringing together global energy and climate leaders in France this week for a major ministerial meeting on energy efficiency, with new IEA analysis showing that the world needs to double progress on efficiency between now and 2030 as part of efforts to improve energy security and affordability while keeping the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C within reach. The IEA’s 8th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency is convening 700 people from more than 80 countries, including over 30 ministers and 50 CEOs, ...

WTI Midland, the light sweet US grade, is being blended with heavy Brazilian grades to produce a cheaper Nigerian lookalike, which is undercutting the Nigerian crude grades in Europe and pushing down buying interest for Nigerian cargoes, multiple trading sources told S&P Global Commodity Insights. In recent months traders have struggled to offload cargoes of Nigerian crude as buyers in India and China moved to buy more heavily discounted Urals crude, now even European refiners have begun looking elsewhere for crude oil. In turn this has pushed Bonny Light, Nigeria’s ...

The failure of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine this week has brought sharp focus on the important role that hydroelectric dams play in energy generation around the world, and the struggles many are under in 2023 due to harsh weather. The breach of the Kakhovka dam came after the facility had been dealing with historically high water levels in recent weeks, but a majority of global hydro facilities have had the opposite problem of depleted water levels in recent months, which was hampered electricity generation potential. Electricity generation ...

The Kremlin said on Thursday that a blast which damaged a pipeline that used to transport ammonia fertiliser from Russia via Ukraine which Moscow wants restarted would have a negative impact on the Black Sea grain deal. The Togliatti-Odesa pipeline, which once pumped up to 2.5 million tonnes of ammonia annually for global export to Ukraine’s Pivdennyi port on the Black Sea from Togliatti in western Russia, has lain idle since the start of the war. Russia has accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up a part of the pipeline, the ...

U.S. diesel demand will drop through 2024 despite growing economic activity, extending a recent break from tradition where demand for the freight fuel grows with GDP, the Energy Information Administration forecast. Historically, GDP has grown in tandem with manufacturing activity and diesel consumption as more goods orders increase the need for freight transport, the main driver of diesel demand. After a brief spurt in consumer spending on goods during peak pandemic-related restrictions, however, service sector production has been the primary driver of GDP growth, which requires less diesel consumption, the ...

Deep within a suburban St. Louis warehouse, rows of ID-tagged soybean plants, bred using artificial intelligence, stretch toward precision-timed grow lights and sway as fans circulate a custom mix of carbon dioxide and humidity. These soy varieties in Benson Hill’s BHIL.N 47,000- square-foot “crop accelerator” produce beans with exceptionally high protein to satisfy two competing demands: Supply the growing biofuels sector and expand the market for soy meal. Seed and food technology companies like Benson Hill and larger player Corteva CTVA.N are urgently trying to change the nutritional profile of ...

Oil steadied on Thursday as tighter supply resulting from Saudi Arabia’s pledged production cut and a potential pause to U.S. interest rate hikes offset worries over demand weakness and a global economic slowdown. At an OPEC+ meeting on Sunday, Saudi Arabia said it will cut its crude output by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in July on top of a broader deal to limit supply into 2024 as the producer group seeks to boost flagging prices. Brent crude fell 8 cents, or 0.1%, to $76.87 a barrel by 0810 ...