EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report Commentary

• Bearish crude: Despite an eye-opening 4.96 million barrel decrease in crude oil inventories, stocks at the Cushing, OK oil trading hub fell by only 200,000 barrels. Until crude oil stocks significantly reduce further, the surplus inventory will easily absorb such draws
• Refineries increased crude oil inputs by 135,000 bpd, pushing utilization rates up 1.4% to 89.8%
• Gasoline stocks ↑1.32 million barrels while demand was flat due to higher-than-usual imports (↑223,000 bpd to 1.254 million bpd)
• Natural gas stocks rose by 78 BCF last week, 6 BCF greater than expected. Oct10/Jan11 is $0.045 wider at -$0.797 as the risk of insufficient year-end storage levels slightly diminishes further, all else being equal

Chris Thorpe's letter to the editor: Wall Street Journal

Below is a letter that Chris Thorpe submitted to the editor of the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The original op-ed is available at: Click Here

Sir,

The Dodd-Frank bill should do Main Street a favor. The proposal to move derivatives to the exchange will help avoid Enron-like disasters in the commodity and derivative transactions in the United States as well as its trading counter parties. For those main street customers holding derivatives with BP, I rest my case. For consumer hedgers that fear collateral capital risk, the Dodd-Frank bill clearly defines a carve-out for consumer hedgers.

Chris Thorpe, CFA
Managing Member, HCEnergy, LLC
New York, NY