US Drilling Rig Count Falls, Managed Money Covered Some Short Positions
$USO, $OIL, $UGA, $BHI. $EPD
In the week ended 4 September, the number of rigs drilling for Crude Oil in the United States totaled 662, compared with 675 in the prior week and 1,584 a year ago.
Including 202 other rigs mostly drilling for Nat Gas, there are a total of 864 working rigs in the country, down by 13 W-W and down 922 year over year. The data come from the latest Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) North American Rotary Rig Count.
WTI Crude Oil for Oct deliver settled at 45.77 Friday. On the week, WTI gained about 1.8%.
Crude Oil has been very volatile recently and the futures market action is the likely cause not supply and demand issues.
The number of rigs drilling for Crude Oil in the United States is down by 1,575 Y-Y, and down by 13 W-W. The Nat Gas rig count is flat at 202. The count for Nat Gas rigs is down by 138 Y-Y.
Gasoline stockpiles decreased by 300,000 bbls last week.
Hedge funds, under the Managed Money heading in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) weekly Commitments of Traders report sold 15,303 short contracts last week and added 5,653 contracts to their long positions.
The movement reflects changes as of the 1 September settlement date.
Managed money holds 250,891 long positions, compared with 140,701 short positions. The hedge funds that did not sell their short positions covered them, and it is likely that short covering provided the volatility seen in the price action.
Among the producers
Short positions outnumber longs, 300,621 to 158,459. The number of short positions last week fell by 1,200 contracts, and longs fell by 8,121 positions. Positions among swaps dealers show 297,795 shorts Vs 220,887 longs. Swaps dealers cut 1,948 contracts from their short positions last week and added 2,752 long contracts.
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) lists a posted price of 42.50 bbl for WTI and a 5 September price of 35.20 bbl for North Dakota Light Sweet. The posted price for a barrel of Eagle Ford crude is 42.45. The price for WTI and Eagle Ford grades rose about $1 a bbl, while the price for North Dakota Crude jumped to nearly 34.00 bbl up from a week ago.
The pump price of gasoline decreased week over week. Saturday morning’s average price in the United States was $2.411 gal, down about 3.2% from $2.49 a week ago.
Have a terrific holiday weekend.
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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