Energy Prospectus

I am back at my desk after a nice trip with wonderful weather in Mexico. Lots of catch-up work for me starting tomorrow.

Closing Prices:
> Prompt-Month WTI (Apr 22) was up $7.69 on the day, to settle at $103.41. < WTI has moved over $108/bbl in after hours trading thanks to API storage report of a big draw from U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories.
See oil price chart: https://www.investing.com/commodities/crude-oil

> Prompt-Month Henry Hub (Apr 22) was up $0.171 on the day, to settle at $4.573 < Ten day forecast looks bullish for natural gas demand. Old Man Winter looks like he has a few more blasts of cold for the Great Lakes region during March.

Notes from OilPrice.com

Once again, a fairly sound idea of releasing 60 million barrels from strategic inventories held by IEA members went almost completely unnoticed by the oil markets. Instead, Russia remains the number one topic on the agenda - after its Central Bank was sanctioned, several banks cut off from SWIFT, new debt and equity was restricted even more than they used to be, and the prospect of seeing some 4.7 million b/d of crude flows (Russia’s average crude exports this year so far) sealed off grows. Despite the heavy-hitting sanctions and a string of oil majors hurriedly leaving Russia, there are very few signs that the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine will end soon. Uncertainty remains rife in oil markets and the price of both WTI and Brent are soaring.

IEA Greenlights 60 Million SPR Release. Facing the prospect of prolonged high oil prices, IEA members reportedly agreed on the release of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic storage, with half of the given volume coming from the United States.

Goldman Sachs Sees a Commodity Rally Developing. An analytical note by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is predicting a tangible commodity spike for all things Russia-relevant starting as we speak, including oil, gas, palladium, nickel, wheat, and corn, lifting its one-month crude forecast to $115 per barrel already.