On the other hand, WTI is actually coming out ahead thanks to all that still pretty robust US production we’re seeing, & the country’s inventories are near-record levels – which is helping to insulate us from some of those international shocks at least for the time being. Plus we have those Strategic Petroleum Reserve releases which can give a bit of a short-term supply boost.
It’s a different story with natural gas of course – US fundamentals here are still pretty soft. The latest EIA report showed that US storage levels had built up by a whopping 79 billion cubic feet in the week ended April 24th – getting up to 2,142 billion cubic feet, in fact – which is 153 billion cubic feet above the five year average. & it’s basically all because of the still pretty strong production numbers, the mild spring weather, and the fact that heating demand is lower than usual right now that all these extra supplies are piling up. & just ahead of the injection season to boot.
