Si ça peut servir ?
Hedge funds and other "non-commercials" that are active in the US oil futures markets have gone short on crude oil futures for the first time in 16 months --
capping three weeks of deflation in oil prices that have brought welcome relief to oil consumers around the world.
Data released last week by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed which that non-commercials sold 26,022 crude futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange in the week ending July 22 -- leaving them short by 3,640 lots.
The selling followed rapidly sinking crude oil prices around the world. The energy markets in general continued to deflate last week like a party balloon released after the guests have all gone home.
With US oil demand shrinking faster than at any time in the past 15 years, and credit problems still putting a chill across world financial markets, the party is definitely over for oil bulls. Light sweet crude oil futures sank by 4.5% last week to end at $123.26 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and showed a similar move on ICE Futures in London.
Gasoline, heating oil and gasoil futures all fell by almost 5% as well. US natural gas futures responded to the fairly uneventful passing of a major hurricane into Mexico by slumping 14% over the week, as it became clear that US natural gas supplies were in no danger.
While the mood in energy is bearish, the sell-off is not necessarily a harbinger of coming weakness this week. Trading volumes were abnormally low last week, not an unusual occurrence during summer, but a poor indicator of general market conditions.
US gasoline demand down, but China still importing
There was no escaping the fact that US gasoline demand is still well down from last year's levels, although China continues to import gasoline at a healthy pace, and that has provided some support to gasoline prices.
US gasoline demand fell by 2.4% year-over-year on a four-week moving average. The drop-off in demand, combined with a jump in output despite unexceptional margins, resulted in a larger-than-expected build of 2.9 million barrels in US gasoline stocks.
At 217.085 million barrels, gasoline stocks were 12.955 million barrels above the five-year average and 12.951 million barrels above year-ago levels.
Meanwhile traders paid attention as China remained a net importer of gasoline for a second consecutive month in June, according to latest Chinese customs statistics.
The government has been keen to stock up on transport fuel ahead of the Beijing Olympics starting August 8, to meet an anticipated increase in demand as tens of thousands of visitors flood into the country.
The country imported 282,996 mt (81,125 barrels per day) of gasoline in June and exported 150,000 mt, meaning it imported a net 132,996 mt of gasoline.
June's import level, however, was 16.5% down on the month from 338,572 mt. Net gasoline imports in May were 178,572 mt, the customs figures showed.
In the first six months of this year, China imported 837,322 mt of gasoline, with shipments in the April-June quarter alone accounting for 91% of the half-year total.
Meanwhile, China's gasoil imports reached 960,000 mt (238,400 b/d) in June, surpassing the recent high of 840,000 mt in January. The June import shipments represented a 37% increase over May's 700,000 mt, and were 48 times more than a year ago.
The influx of imports into China can be attributed largely to Beijing's policy of subsidizing its two state-controlled oil majors for some of their gasoil and gasoline imports in the second quarter.
Prices of gasoil and gasoline sold in China are regulated and set artificially low by the central government to help restrain inflation. But with international crude oil benchmarks reaching record highs this year, Chinese state-controlled refineries and independent refiners have all posted heavy financial losses.
Many independent refiners have halted production for good, while state refining giants PetroChina and Sinopec continue to shoulder the burden of processing more crude under central government orders to ensure stable oil products supply to the domestic market.
PetroChina and Sinopec have also been importing gasoil and gasoline at international market prices to cover a projected shortfall in domestic supply.
To partly compensate the two refining giants, the Chinese government has agreed to refund them the 17% value-added tax levied on some of their products imports between April and June this year, amounting to as much as 1 million mt of gasoline and 2.5 million mt of gasoil.
Beijing has also given PetroChina and Sinopec rebates for crude imports starting from last April, which amounts to three-quarters of the 17% value-added tax they pay.
The level of Chinese imports of gasoil and gasoline in the coming months, however, are uncertain. Neither the central government nor the two giants have made any announcement on the extension of the VAT rebate on crude and oil products imports for the current July-September quarter.
Updated: July 29, 2008
http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/Futures/index.xml