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Crude oil futures lost ground during the week along with growing doubts about the outlook for global demand, prompted in large part by fears that the Federal Reserve will push for more aggressive interest rate hikes.
In testimony before the US Senate on Tuesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warned interest rates would have to rise further than previously thought to control inflation.
“The chances of a recession, and therefore lower demand for oil, increasecausing a drop in the price of a barrel as traders begin to price in the economic contraction, which may result from monetary policy tightening” in the US, ActivTrades analyst Ricardo Evangelista said. market clock.
Meanwhile, imports from China fell by 10.2% during the first two months of the year, double the drop expected by the consensus of economists.
Prior Month Nymex Crude Oil (CL1:COM) for April Delivery Settled -3.7% at $76.68/bbl this week, down five from the past seven weeks, and May Brent crude (CO1:COM) closed -3.5% at $82.78/bbl.
Meanwhile, Nymex (NG1:COM) natural gas has been finalized for April delivery -19.2% to $2.43/MMBtu, down 47.5% year-to-date.
ETFs: (NYSEARCA:USE), (BNO), (UCO), (BOD), (SCO), (USL), (DRIP), (GUSH), (USOI), (NRGU), (UNG), (UGAZF), (BOIL), (COLD), (UNL), (FCG)
On Friday night, the operator of the Trans Mountain pipeline project in Canada said construction costs have skyrocketed to C$30.9B (US$22.3 billion), ~4 times the estimated cost of C$7.7 billion when the Canadian government purchased the project from Kinder Morgan (KMI) in May 2018.
Canada paid C$4.5 billion for the 710-mile pipeline, which was sold by Kinder Morgan due to political uncertainty over the completion of the project.
Trans Mountain Corp., which operates the project on behalf of the Canadian government, cited a variety of factors for the higher costs, including inflation, supply chain challenges, flooding in British Columbia, unexpected archaeological discoveries and the difficult terrain.
The new pipeline, which will expand capacity to 890,000 bbl/day, is 80% complete and is expected to be operational in the first quarter of next year after mechanical completion by the end of 2023, the operator said.
Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) Closed -5.3% for the week.
Top 5 Energy & Natural Resources Gainers Over the Last 5 Days: (VST) +14.5%(PPSI) +7.2%(ENLT) +7.2%(TPIC) +6.2%(DKL) +4%.
Top 10 decliners in energy and natural resources over the last 5 days: (NYSE:NINE) -35.1%(AMTX) -30.2%(ICD) -23.7%(VTNR) -23%(SLI) -22.7%(NM) -22.2%(ENOUGH) -20.7%(AMLI) -20.6%(H.P.K.) -20.6%(SBOW) -19.5%.
Source: Barchart.com
