Crude Oil
Crude oil prices are higher again these past two weeks. WTI prices increased about 4% to a spot price of $84/barrel and Brent prices increased 3% to a spot price of $86/barrel.
All the same themes in the energy space remain in place. We wrote one-month ago in Brainfood Issue 21.20 that “the overall industry consensus appears to be bullish crude oil.” The market is heading directly towards industry analysts’ expectations of crude oil prices reaching $90/barrel in the 4th quarter. At that point $100/barrel becomes a psychological benchmark that we at Blueclover would be surprised if crude oil prices don’t reach that price point..
Natural Gas
Natural gas prices are up about 9% to $5.90/mmbtu which is where pricing for natural gas was about a month ago. There has been a demonstrated need for natural gas around the world with USA inventories averaging about 4% below its five year average and Europe averaging about 15% its five year average…
Plastics Feedstocks (Naphtha, Ethane, and Propane)
Naphtha pricing (CIF Japan) is up 4% to a spot price of $790/mt.
Ethane prices in Mont Belvieu, TX are stable around 42 cents per gallon (cpg).
Propane prices in Mont Belvieu, TX surprisingly fell slightly to 141 cpg from 145 cpg. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article about how retail propane is going to be expensive this winter…something we have been saying here at BlueClover for weeks now.
Propylene
Spot physical PGP prices are currently around 62cpp, only down about 2cpp from our last report.
The estimated calendar monthly average for physical PGP in Mont Belvieu, TX for October is about 66.5cpp. •
In our last report, we estimated October contract PGP to be down…