Tausi Insider

U.S. crude stocks fell by more than 5 million barrels in the most recent week, while fuel stocks rose as refiners boosted output to deal with high demand and low inventories. Crude inventories fell by 5.4 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 11 to 435.4 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 440,000-barrel drop. “The drawdown in crude supplies is substantial. The crude supply is still very tight, heating oil supply is still below average,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “My gut feeling is it’s a very supportive report, it shows supplies are very tight.” Refinery crude runs picked up in the most recent week, rising by 63,000 barrels per day to bring refinery utilization rates to 92.9 per cent of overall capacity, up 0.8 percentage points. Fuel stocks rose across the board, a salve for end-users worried about low inventories that have persisted for several mo...

Shell has injected nearly $1.5-billion in cash and credit into its British energy retail business this year to help it weather huge volatility in power prices that caused the collapse of several rival U.K. power utilities, Shell Energy said in a filing on Thursday. Britain’s power utilities have been rocked by huge fluctuations in energy prices since the end of 2021 due to a shortage in natural gas supplies, which was exacerbated after Russia sharply reduced supplies to Europe following its invasion of Ukraine in February. The volatility led to several bankruptcies in the sector, including Bulb, which the British government is set to rescue at a cost of up to £6.5-billion ($8-billion). Shell Energy’s SHEL-N operating loss rose to £102.4-million in 2021 from £83.6-million a year earlier, according to the company’s financial results, released on Thursday. The loss was “principally driven by market conditions. In particular, the unprecedented rise in energy prices in the latter part of ...

European Union countries intend next year to push for more gas deals – including long-term contracts – to replace Russian supplies, draft conclusions for an EU leaders’ summit on Thursday showed. The draft, seen by Reuters, said the EU should move quickly to start jointly buying gas – an idea suggested by the EU last year to use the bloc’s heft as the world’s biggest gas market to negotiate lower prices, but which it has yet to put into practice. At the same time, countries should also accelerate talks with reliable suppliers “to secure the supply of gas in view of winter 2023/2024 with a view to concluding long-term contracts,” said the draft, which could change before it is adopted by leaders. Russia was Europe’s top gas supplier but has cut off the majority of European deliveries since its invasion of Ukraine in February, sending energy prices soaring and driving EU countries to secure extra supplies from Algeria, Norway and the United States. Brussels has said the majority of Rus...

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales rose 2.1 per cent to $83.4-billion in October, boosted by gains in the miscellaneous goods, building material and supplies, and personal and household goods subsectors. The agency says sales were up in six of the seven subsectors it tracks. Sales for the miscellaneous goods subsector gained 5.5 per cent at $13.0-billion in October, with the bulk of the increase in the agricultural supplies industry. The building material and supplies subsector rose 3.3 per cent to $12.6-billion in October on higher sales for lumber, millwork, hardware and other building supplies. Meanwhile, the personal and household goods subsector rose 2.8 per cent to $11.6-billion. Statistics Canada says overall sales in constant dollars rose 0.9 per cent in October. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-wholesale-sales-up-2-1-in-october-statscan-says/?feed_id=327842&_unique_id=641894a8dec12

The gas compressor station, a part of Polish section of the Yamal pipeline that links Russia with western Europe which is owned by a joint venture of Gazprom and PGNiG but it is operated by Poland's state-owned gas transmission company Gaz-System, is seen in Gabinek near Wloclawek, Poland May 23, 2022. KACPER PEMPEL/Reuters Moscow is ready to resume gas supplies to Europe through the Yamal-Europe Pipeline, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state TASS news agency. “The European market remains relevant, as the gas shortage persists, and we have every opportunity to resume supplies,” TASS cited Novak as saying in remarks published by the agency on Sunday. “For example, the Yamal-Europe Pipeline, which was stopped for political reasons, remains unused.” The Yamal-Europe Pipeline usually flows westward, but has been mostly reversed since December of 2021 as Poland turned away from buying from Russia in favour of drawing on stored gas in Germany. In May, Warsaw termina...