WTI crude oil is trading over $105/bbl as of 12:40 eastern time, it’s highest level in years and up nearly $10/bbl from yesterday’s close as the war in Ukraine intensifies, as the Western world’s shock and disgust with Russian aggression also intensifies and more sanctions and penalties are being discussed. To date, those sanctions and penalties have not caused Vladimir Putin to change course from his aggression….if anything, it’s caused him to ratchet up his rhetoric (we hope its rhetoric) and even talking about the usage of nuclear weapons.
The markets do no like that…the markets were already skittish with runaway inflation and global economies teetering on the edge of recession, prospects of stagflation and a bunch of other economic words that mean unpleasant things.
Propane’s averages yesterday were around $1.39 in Conway and just over $1.40 at TET, but current spot values are much higher than that now as propane is following crude oil, as is much of the energy complex.
In many years, March signals a softening of propane spot values….but 2022 appears to be anything but a normal March. Russian Urals, the pricing basis for Russian oil exports, are now being offered at a $15/bbl discount to Brent crude, which is the largest discount on record…as banks and others are executing an unofficial embargo of Russian crude oil. On the one hand, that will hit Putin right in the pocketbook…on the other hand, that is likely going to hit everyone in the pocket book, as Russian crude oil supplies being removed from the global market will likely cause Brent and WTI values to rise. This, in light of United States producers continuing to operate in a ‘lower’ production environment and OPEC not yet coming to any sort of rescue with pledges of their spare capacity.
These times are not for the faint of heart.
Jon Miller and Chris Cox of Flashpoint Energy Partners discuss the chaos and volatility that dominate the propane and world headlines right now. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine adds a chaos card to an already tricky deck the energy world was dealing with. Click on this link to watch, or click on the video image to the right to do the same.