Updated 11.15am: More than just a rollover issue? Oil markets are in turmoil again today as both Brent and WTI contracts come under severe pressure, with volatility extremely elevated.
Severe dislocation in the May contract is spilling over into future months with the benchmark June WTI contract tumbling 40 per cent or so to take an $11 handle at one point this morning. It’s rebounded very sharply back to $16.50. July remains firmer above $20. Whilst the May contract went absurdly low because traders had to avoid taking physical delivery at all costs, the forward contracts look too high when you consider how much demand destruction is out there. If this super contango market persists we may see further implosions like we saw yesterday as we approach settlement as traders are caught the wrong side of the expiry with nowhere to put it.
We are also seeing spill-overs into Brent which is facing the challenges with the front month – which we roll this Friday – dipping under $20 before paring losses and rallying back to $22. We will watch this one carefully to see whether it too shows severe stress, however volumes in the Jun contract remain high, unlike the May WTI contract which had become very illiquid. Fewer constraints on storage and the fact Brent is a seaborne commodity will help and should mean it outperforms WTI in the coming months.
We’ve talked at length about this already with regards to the fact storage constraints are not going away any time soon unless you get a pickup in demand, which is not forthcoming. I think also demand destruction is worse than the refiners thought it would be. We also note the reports of a large volume of Saudi oil making its way to the US, which were loaded and shipped prior to OPEC+ deal when the Saudis were flooding the market with cheap crude.