Namzes Cycles
Hurst Cycle & Technical Analyst, Commodities/Crypto/Equity Indices, Risk Management Background
Oil refiners look too late to chase because they are over-earning, and margins will likely compress down the line. Refiners ran as Chinese utilization fell about 40% and 40% of Russian capacity went offline because of the war, pushing product-versus-crude margins to all-time highs of $80-100. Oil services names such as SLB look better placed to benefit. x.com
Shell's stronger refining profits and larger buyback support the view that its breakout holds. Q3 adjusted earnings reached $10.8 billion versus $9.9 billion expected, as refining margins hit a record $42 a barrel; the three-month buyback rises from $3 billion to $5 billion. Those margins will not last forever. x.com
Refiners such as Valero and PBF look past their best, because higher oil prices are no longer necessarily bullish for them. Per a client, refiners are running at 95% and still can't build finished-product inventories. These look like as-good-as-it-gets earnings, and prices look ahead to demand deconstruction: high prices force alternatives and faster cost-cutting. Capacity scarcity still supports valuations, as with AI stocks, but price controls always backfire. x.com x.com x.com
Oil refiners have become the bottleneck, with refining, not crude, now setting fuel prices. Per @JeffSnider_EDU, crude inventories are only 6% below normal, but gasoline stocks just fell 5 million barrels in a week and diesel is 12% below average despite soft freight and US gasoline demand down 2.2%. Refineries running at 95.8% still can't keep up, pushing the crack spread to record highs. x.com
Money is rotating from big refiners and integrated oil companies into oil drilling and servicing firms. The move could be in its early innings, and the recent drilling gains alongside refiner losses are working in that direction. x.com
Crude oil's last cushion is gone as recovering demand squeezes constrained Middle East supply. Barclays puts China imports near pre-war levels at 10.5m b/d, India up 600,000 b/d year on year and Middle East flows at 84% of pre-war levels; US demand is recovering. After more than 500m barrels of inventory were drawn down, buyers are paying a $13/bbl premium for next-week cargoes over the front-month contract, versus under $4 a week into the war. x.com
US crude and Chevron face a potential domestic glut: supertanker export costs are said to have risen from $8 million to $80 million, pushing Asian and European buyers toward Saudi and South American oil. Limited US refining capacity could leave the surplus unused and bankrupt smaller producers, though the author still says earlier exports caused a shortage. x.com x.com x.com
Plummeting base costs and weaker demand from struggling economies abroad should push crude oil lower next year. The same forces will also weigh on many other commodities and services. x.com
Refiners such as Valero and Marathon Petroleum may be nearing a top, because the cure for high prices is always high prices. The stocks have made monster moves as crack spreads blow out and foreign buyers fight for distillate capacity. x.com
Oil refiners such as Marathon Petroleum and Valero stand to benefit as renewed Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries look bullish for crack spreads. A drone reportedly hit Kirishi's KINEF refinery again just as it was preparing to restart after months of repairs. KINEF is one of Russia's largest refineries, processing about 20 million tons of oil a year, roughly 6.6% of the country's refining capacity. x.com
European refiners Repsol and OMV offer better risk/reward and could rally sharply if the US imposes export curbs. x.com
