Sampling Of
Past WFBS Graduates
- Ace Paving Company
- Acoma Business Enterprises
- AEP River Operations
- AGE Refining, Inc.
- Air Liquide
- Ajax Paving
- Albian Sands Energy
- All Maintenance, Inc.
- Altra Biofuels
- Ameren Energy Fuels and Services
- American Electric Power
- American Petroleum Institute
- Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
- Anderes Oil
- Army and Air Force Exchange Services
- Ashby Fuel Oil Corporation
- Associated Wholesale
- B&L Investments Inc
- Beach Oil Company
- Beaver Excavating
- Beck Oil Company
- Bi-Pro Marketing
- Blue Sun Investments, LLC
- Bosselman, Inc.
- Boswell Oil Company
- Buckeye Partners
- Buckeye Pipeline
- Buford Trading Post
- C & S Petroleum Inc.
- CA Attorney General
- California Renewable Energies
- Calvert
- Capitol City Travel Center
- Cargill
- CC&V Gold Mining Co.
- Cemex
- Central Transport
- Chevron
- Citizens First Bank
- Coleman Oil Company
- Commonwealth of PA
- ConocoPhillips
- Davidson Oil
- DDMRK Management
- Devon Energy
- Dhl
- Diversified Fuel
- Dodge's Stores
- Douglass Distributing
- Drew Transport Services
- Duffield Hauling Inc
- Duncan Oil Company Inc.
- Duran Oil Company
- Easy Fuel Inc.
- Eby Oil Inc
- Edw.C. Levy Company
- El-Nemr Enterprises
- EnergyWatch, Inc.
- ESS, Inc.
- Evergreen Transportation
- Fastop Petroelum Marketing, Inc.
- FDI
- FedEx Freight
- Fleet Card Fuels
- Fleet Morris Petroleum
- Flying J, Inc.
- Fuel Managers
- Fuel Masters
- Fuelquest
- Gasforal, LLC
- Get N Go, Inc.
- Glenn Dist. Inc.
- Goodin Fuels
- Growmark
- Gypsum Express
- Hager Oil Company
- Hanuman Business Inc.
- Hedge Solutions
- Hess Corporation
- High Plains Bioenergy
- Houston-Galveston Area Council
- HRI, Inc.
- HTECC
- Huey's Mart
- Husky Marketing and Supply Company
- Ilderton Oil Co.
- Independence Biofuels
- International Lease Consultants
- InterState Oil Co.
- Jebro
- Kansas City Area Transportation Authority
- Keeman Petroleum Co.
- Kewa Gas Limited
- Key Energy
- Kickapoo Casino
- Knife River Energy Service
- Knight Transportation
- Kroger Company
- Kwik Pik Food Stores
- Laddi Corporation
- Lafarge North America
- LE Belcher, Inc.
- Leavesley Chevron
- Leonard’s Services
- Liberty Petroleum Distributors
- Marc Nelson Oil Products, Inc.
- Marine View Ventures
- Martin and Bayley Inc
- Master Amoco
- Maverick Energy Consulting
- McIntyre Circle Enterprises, Inc.
- McKee Foods Corporation
- Midstream Fuel Service LLC
- NACS
- National Energy Systems Company
- Natural Resources Canada
- Nevada State Purchasing
- Newton Oil Co.
- North Star Gas LLC
- Nouria Energy Corporation
- Oftedal Construction
- Omya Industries Inc.
- O’Rourke Petroleum
- Pacific Coast Marine Fuels
- Pacific Convenience & Fuels LLC
- Pancham LLC
- Panhandle Co-op
- Petersen Oil Co
- Petr-All Petroleum Corp.
- Petroplus
- PetroSouth
- PFC Energy
- Phelps Dodge Morenci
- Plains All American Marketing
- Poma Distributing
- Port Authority of Alleghany County
- Portland General Electric Co.
- Quality Fuels, Inc.
- Quick Chek
- Rackham Services Corp.
- Rainbow Market
- RB Stewart Petroleum Prod. Inc.
- RE Powell
- Rebel Oil Company
- Red Rock Distributing Co.
- Redwood Coast Petroleum
- Reisner Distributor, Inc.
- Sebesta Blomberg
- Sequatchie Concrete
- Shell Oil
- Sinclair Oil
- Sunoco
- Sunrise Transportation
- Swiss Valley Oil
- T.D. Petes
- Tabasco Group
- Talens Marine & Fuel
- T-Chek Systems
- Tesoro
February 20, 2012
Paper Oil Markets Expand; Crude Bias Grows Bigger; RBOB Skew Still Huge
Trading in futures and options contracts for the three core U.S. petroleum futures contracts continues to advance, despite reports of lackluster demand on the North American continent.
Friday's Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report showed a huge rush of fund money into WTI crude and options. Within the category of non- commercial players (generally thought to be representative of hedge funds, commodity pools, index funds, etc.) the aggregate long position climbed by 31,863 contracts while 3,572 short positions were liquidated. The net long position of 280,770 WTI contracts represents the strongest buying bias for crude since May 2011. Some observers really believe that the ongoing rush of money into crude could put the all-time record long skew of 348,278 contracts into play. That record was established on March 8, 2011.
RBOB futures saw a new record open interest count of 363,280 contracts, despite data that indicated U.S. gasoline demand is running anywhere from 5% to 7% behind last year, and well below peak years of 2006 and 2007. The action among the funds was choppy for RBOB, however, as shorts were slightly more active than speculative buyers. Still, the CFTC picture shows a net long bias of 86,553 contracts, representing 86.5 million bbl of RBOB. That number was only exceeded in the previous week, and there are predictions that length in RBOB futures and options may hit 100 million bbl before it crests.
Heating oil action remains unextraordinary. There is a long bias of 22,793 contracts, and the numbers haven't shown dramatic movement in recent weeks.
But the bottom line is that within the big money community, well heeled investors and speculators still like crude oil, and they love the potential upside for gasoline.
February 15, 2012
Shippers Urge TransCanada to Build Cushing-USGC Leg of Keystone
XL Soon
Canadian pipeline company TransCanada may soon decide on whether to accelerate construction of the southernmost leg of the Keystone XL pipeline as it moves closer to re-applying for the key U.S. State Department permit that would trigger the completion of the expansion as a whole.
CEO Russ Girling said Tuesday that in the month since President Obama denied the company the key permit, potential shippers on the line have expressed a lot of interest in the possibility that TransCanada goes forward soon with a pipeline to link the Cushing, Okla., oil storage hub with the refinery-rich U.S. Gulf Coast.
"Our number one priority is going ahead with the entire project," Girling said in a post-earnings conference call in response to a question about TransCanada's dealings with shippers. "That being said, there is an obvious and real need to take care of that bottleneck and Cushing." The pricing discounts of burgeoning oil production in Canada and North Dakota versus $100-plus/bbl benchmark crudes such as West Texas Intermediate and Brent have captivated U.S. oil refiners for many months but they recently widened to historic proportions -- to as much as $35/bbl in some cases.
Girling said acceleration of the Cushing-Gulf Coast leg of Keystone XL has been much discussed at TransCanada. "There is potentially a lot of merit to it and we're working through that right now," he told call participants.
In addition, TransCanada is now envisioning a slightly later start-up of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline as a whole.
The company said in a statement that plans were underway "on a number of fronts to largely maintain the construction schedule of the project," and that it expected a new permit application to be processed in a manner that would allow for an in-service date of early 2015.
Less than a month ago, TransCanada responded to the rejection of its permit application by vowing to re-apply, saying at the time that expedited consideration that took into account project information already on the record should mean the pipeline would be in service by late 2014.
TransCanada's head of oil pipelines said Tuesday that the timeline stretch wasn't the result of "anything very material." With construction of Keystone XL estimated at two years and first quarter 2013 "a reasonable date for a new Presidential Permit," it was "just simple math," Alex Pourbaix said.
He added that talks with Nebraska and the state's Department of Environmental Quality regarding a re-route for the project were going well and TransCanada expects to re-apply to the U.S. State Department for its permit "in the relatively near future."
Some work with Nebraska officials remains to be done. "We want to be really careful and make sure that we're putting in the best application possible," Pourbaix said.
According to a blogger who has written about the Keystone XL project for Scientific American, that might mean that TransCanada emerges from its talks with Nebraska with several new viable pipeline routes in hand.
If TransCanada comes out of talks with Nebraska with only one route, chances are greater that known opponents of the pipeline (not to mention new ones) could resist the project anew and ratchet up political and public pressure, Scott McNally told OPIS. "The safest option would be to have several routes," he said. This far along in an extended review process, TransCanada could pretty accurately anticipate new objections and re-apply in such a way as to ease the State Department's approval, he added.
McNally, a chemical engineer, worked as an environmental engineer for Valero and as a project engineer for Shell before interning for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
February 13, 2012
Speculators Still Piling Into Gasoline; Records Smashed Again
Paper traders in futures and options still love gasoline. In fact, they love gasoline so much that it is frightening some of the more cautious gasoline traders who believe that RBOB futures and options may be entering overbought territory. Data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week shows that there has never been a bullish bias as strong as the current buying frenzy that has yet to crest.
CFTC data released Friday showed a snapshot of large trader activity on Feb. 7 and among large non-commercial entities (thought to be representative of hedge funds, commodity pools, index funds and large speculators), buyers outnumbered sellers by a margin of 104,049 contracts to 16,449 contracts. The "net long" buying bias rose to 87,600 contracts, representing 87.6 million bbl of RBOB. That smashed the record established in late January when net length hit 82,643 contracts. Before 2012, the record bias came on May 4, 2010 when speculative buyers held a net long position of about 80.9 million bbl.
It is not odd to see midwinter enthusiasm for gasoline futures and options.
As recently as January 2009, speculative buyers accounted for more than 95% of the action in the non-commercial segment for large traders. Last week's buying bias was just above 86%. However, the participation in the non-commercial portion of the gasoline futures market is about twice the size as it was in January 2009.
There is no detail on which months see the greatest speculative length, but sources believe that much of the money is tied up in summer spec 2012 months. At current and future prices, one can estimate that there is some $11.4 billion more bet on a higher price outcome, rather than a slump in gasoline prices.
The "tilt" toward a record monetary bet is for now singular to the RBOB market. Crude oil futures and options see a large net long bias, but at 245,337 contracts, the position is nowhere close to record levels and falls more than 100,000 positions short of where it was in March 2011.
The same thing is true for heating oil. There was a small burst in buying last week that pushed the net long position up to 28,220 contracts, but that compares to early 2010 biases of more than 45,000 positions.
Footnote: since the CFTC report represents a snapshot of positions held last Tuesday, Feb. 7, it is almost certain that the report due this Friday will shatter this just established record. Observers in the paper markets believe that many large funds added to their RBOB long holdings last Thursday and Friday, and today looks like it will see a continuation of that trend.
February 9, 2012
NuStar Ramping Up Canadian Oil Deliveries to Paulsboro; Eyes Texas
City Next
NuStar Energy has begun to deliver more heavy crude from the prairie lands of Canada via rail to its 74,000-b/d Paulsboro plant in New Jersey, gradually ramping up to 10,000 b/d by the end of third quarter, Rod Pullen, vice president of transportation at NuStar, told OPIS on Wednesday.
The higher supply of Canadian crude to Paulsboro should help lift the company's ailing asphalt margin.
NuStar was delivering about 1,000 b/d of Canadian crude to Paulsboro since the start-up of that rail delivery from Canada in December.
That delivery volume will rise to 3,500 b/d in February, following the recent commissioning of CP's new Lloydminster terminal in Saskatchewan.
In its recent start-up, the Lloydminster terminal will load a daily average of up to 15 cars of 600 bbl each.
CP's rail network connects Alberta and Saskatchewan to the U.S. Midwest and Northeast.
NuStar had said during its fourth quarter earnings call that the Paulsboro asphalt plant is processing about 7,000 b/d of Canadian crude, and that processing volume is to rise to 30,000 b/d over the next year.
Delivery volume for Canadian crude to Paulsboro will vary over the year, with the peak demand seen in summer.
Paulsboro is also processing Brazilian Peregrino crude and Venezuelan crudes.
The introduction of Brazilian and Canadian crude is expected to lower the cost of asphalt production by at least $2/bbl.
"That (Brazilian) crude is approximately $2 per barrel below our current Venezuelan crude costs. We are looking at various Canadian crudes, so are not yet able to confirm a price differential, but it is expected to be an even bigger spread," a company spokeswoman told OPIS last year.
After Paulsboro, NuStar is considering implementing its crude diversification strategy at its 30,000-b/d Savannah asphalt plant. It is possible that Canadian crude could be delivered to Savannah via rail in the future.
Pullen also said that NuStar would explore Canadian heavy crude delivery via rail to Texas City in the future as the Canadian imports are set to rise.
He noted that the possible Canadian crude delivery to Texas would be for marketing and sale purposes as NuStar does not own a refining facility in that location.
February 6, 2012
Fitch Ratings Raises Conservative Oil Price Targets; Cuts Gas
Fitch Ratings said on Monday that it has raised its 2012 base case oil price to $87.50/bbl for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and to $95/bbl for Brent to reflect near-term market factors.
Long-term prices for WTI and Brent remain unchanged at $65/barrel and $70/barrel, respectively.
These base cases incorporate the reliance by oil companies on emerging market growth, lingering geopolitical risks, and investor concerns with global inflation.
Current oil prices remain well above Fitch's long-term base case expectation.
While prices could rise due to increased geopolitical tensions, Fitch believes downside risks to oil prices remain significant.
Fitch also notes that oil and liquid prices continue to drive the majority of capital-expenditure decision in the exploration and production sector.
Fitch has also lowered its U.S. natural gas price deck with 2012 base case Henry Hub (HH) prices at $3.25 per thousand cubic feet and long-term prices lowered to $5.00/mcf from $5.50/mcf.
The drop reflects the combination of warm weather, continued weakness in the U.S. economy and the ongoing supply of unconventional natural gas from U.S. shale production.
Fitch's price deck intends to reflect a more conservative view of future price levels for modeling and rating purposes, and for evaluating future commodity price expectations from a bondholder perspective.
Fitch's price deck will often remain below current spot and future markets as a result. The price deck also reflects just supply/demand fundamentals, particularly the long-term price deck, with the recognition that near-term events can result in significant deviations from fundamental levels.
