From ZeroHedge:
Collapsing Contango Means Tankers Full Of Oil Such As This One, Will Soon Have To Unload Their Cargo
One week ago we showed something the oil bulls did not expect: oil producer hedging had started.
As a trader cited by Reuters said "Brent's flattening contango since January comes as many producers want to cash in immediately on recent price rises. They've been heavily selling 2017/2018 and beyond, and it shows that they don't quite trust the higher spot prices yet."
He further explained that "This means that even the producers don't really expecting a strong price rally until well into 2017 or later," and Reuters added that the companies that explore for oil and pump it out of the ground have been locking in price gains by selling off future output as a financial hedge, pulling down prices for those contracts.We will have more to say on the topic of producer oil hedging, and specifically how they do it, in a subsequent post but for now it is worth noting that since last week the contango has flattened further as the spot price rose while the long end declined, suggesting even more hedging has taken place in recent days.
One analyst who notes this trend, is Saxo Bank's Ole Hansen who observes that the rally in oil prices to 3 month highs has coincided with narrowing contangos that alter storage economics and threaten oil flooding back into the market. The reason for this is that storing oil, either on the ground or on ships, becomes less profitable the greater the flattening in the contango.
"As we’ve seen both Brent and WTI climb above $40 we have also seen the contango collapse."
As examples, Bloomberg observes the WTI M1-M2 contango narrowing to earlier $1.25 today, the tightest since Jan. 22; while the WTI M1-M3 contango has reaches just $2.21, or the smallest in two months.
The long-end has seen even sharper moves with the WTI M1-M13 contango contracting 86c to close at $4.97 yesterday, compared to $6.64 Tuesday.
Hansen also added what we warned about two weeks ago, namely that $40-plus oil "could also stop the production slowdown, which with the weakness of the dollar has been the main driver for oil prices," posing another downside risk.
Hansen adds that "If we rally too high the contango will collapse further and the storage economics reduce - that could trigger storage in tanks to be reduced," increasing supply and putting pressure back on crude prices. Recall that several producers made it clear that once oil rises above $40, the pumping will resume, although not all. Today Bank of America laid out a useful chart showing the incremental production sensitivity, with the delta between $40 and $50 being critical....MORE
