With the EIA reporting an almost 5-million-barrel stock draw in gasoline over the week ending May 13, with inventories dropping to levels last seen in December and completely ignoring the seasonal build-up trend, gasoline has become the talk of the US market.
- This week brought a long-anticipated breakthrough as even the last states to see gasoline prices below $4 per gallon (Georgia, Kansas, and Oklahoma) have surpassed that threshold and every single US state now sees gasoline prices above the WTI contract.
- At the same time, the backwardation in the gasoline futures remains steep, hindering potential arbitrage inflows from Europe, with the six-month calendar spread around trading $1 per barrel.
- Buoyed by gasoline panic and the Biden Administration’s possible delay of US drilling lease sales, the NYMEX WTI has overtaken ICE Brent for the first time in months.
- Russian Oil Revenues Are Soaring, Despite Sanctions
- The International Energy Agency reported that the Kremlin has netted approximately $20 billion every single month of 2022 so far, from combined sales of about 8 million b/d of crude and products.
- This implies that despite US/EU sanctions and frequent self-sanctioning amongst Western oil companies dealing with Russia, the primary lifeline of the Putin regime remains firmly in place.
- According to Kpler data, seaborne Russian oil exports reached…
