Your Daily Energy Report for November 5, 2024
Posted on 2024-11-05
Crude Oil
Crude Oil futures for December settled up $.52 or .728% at $71.99. Oil prices climbed on Tuesday, driven by market uncertainty ahead of the US presidential election. This follows a more than 2.9% gain in the previous session, which was sparked by OPEC+'s decision to delay its planned production increase for December. Investors are closely watching the US election results and the upcoming National People’s Congress in China, where new stimulus measures could be introduced. The delay in OPEC+'s production hike comes amid weaker demand and growing supply from non-OPEC countries. While OPEC's output increased in October, thanks to Libya's resumed production, Iraq’s efforts to meet its cuts limited overall gains. Additionally, Iran has greenlighted a plan to raise production by 250,000 barrels per day. On the supply side, a late-season tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico could disrupt US oil production, potentially cutting output by around 4 million barrels.
Natural Gas
Natural Gas futures for December settled down -$.111 or -3.991% at $2.67. Natural gas prices dropped on Tuesday, driven by forecasts for mild weather through late November, which is expected to reduce heating demand and allow utilities to continue building up gas inventories. This marked the third consecutive week of rising storage injections, the first such streak since October 2023. In contrast, earlier this year, injections had been lower than usual as producers scaled back drilling in response to falling prices. December gas futures settled at $2.67 per million British thermal units, despite potential disruptions from Tropical Storm Rafael. On the supply side, US gas production averaged 100.9 billion cubic feet per day in November, down from October levels, partly due to issues with the El Paso pipeline in New Mexico.