Ten Companies, Ten Charts, Ten Recommendations

By Paul Sankey Published on February 29, 2024 at 9:03 AM

Market backdrop: our argument that low US refining utilisation this month (Feb 2024) would tend to pressure crude prices, tighten product inventories, and raise product prices, is not working at all, leading us to demand concerns. Refiners have been weak accordingly, even if background GDP data and better than expected China numbers suggest a good year for refiners. It’s not all bad news: crude oil prices are acting well. Generally with seasonality, tough January weather …

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California write-downs: Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Brangelina

By Paul Sankey Published on January 13, 2024 at 11:41 AM

This year started with massive writedowns from both Chevron and ExxonMobil in California. You don’t need to read the all-time classic of industry literature, “Oil!”, by Upton Sinclair (nor watch the classic film “There Will Be Blood” which is based on the book) to know there is a long and storied history of oil in California. In this note we write brief histories that led to the write-downs. Spoiler alert, we start with the conclusions, …

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Context & Questions for Refining Conference Jan 3rd 2024

By Paul Sankey Published on December 30, 2023 at 3:45 PM

Excitement is mounting for our refining conference day next week 3rd January. We also have a former big time oil trader and a former CFO of one of our independent refiners joining dinner 2nd January with Ole Slorer. Still space available if you are in Miami by Tuesday, please join. This note has company specific questions for the Tuesday participants, six companies back-to-back. There is no limit to participants if you want to join the …

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