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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Crude oil prices rose
Nov. 20 on news that the first COVID-19 vaccine doses could be available by the
end of the year, but the reaction was tempered by rising coronavirus cases in
North America and Europe and the fear of family gatherings during the upcoming
US Thanksgiving holiday further escalating the pandemic, reported S&P
Global.
On the final day of trading for the NYMEX WTI December contract,
front-month NYMEX WTI rose 52 cents to settle at USD42.42/b for the week while
ICE January Brent jumped 76 cents to settle at USD44.96/b.
"Crude prices
are set for a third consecutive weekly gain on vaccine optimism, but the
near-term outlook will likely prevent any significant moves higher as the
likelihood of more lockdowns grows," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst
with OANDA.
"A lot of Americans may ignore the CDC recommendation to
cancel Thanksgiving plans and that will keep the energy markets prepared for
further and longer lockdowns across the US throughout December," he added,
citing the recent advisory from the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
While there is longer-term optimism on crude prices and
demand, and front-month NYMEX WTI hit its highest settled price since Sept. 2,
WTI futures contracts are still sitting just below USD43.50/b in 11
months.
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech applied Nov. 20 for
emergency approval to start delivering COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of
December, although a much larger rollout would drag out well into
2021.
The announcement comes shortly after they said the vaccine appears
95% effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease in a large, ongoing
study. The move starts the clock for the approval process at the US Food and
Drug Administration.
Moderna's similar vaccine is progressing with claims
of nearly 95% effectiveness as well.
However, the daily COVID-19 death
count in the US has risen near 2,000 people again for the first time since May,
daily caseloads are at all-time highs, and unemployment claims are back on the
rise. Some European countries are making more progress in slowing the rising
cases, but only after implementing stricter economic lockdowns that hurt oil
demand.
And, in both the US and the EU, stimulus package talks remain on
hold, including opposition from Poland and Hungary in the EU.
As for
products, NYMEX December RBOB increased 1.27 cents to settle at USD1.1752/gal
while December ULSD was up 1.56 cents at USD1.2863/gal.
In the meantime,
there is ongoing optimism that the OPEC+ group will opt to extend its current
production cuts into 2021. However, OPEC is still seeing production volumes rise
as Libya ramps up output following a recent peace deal among warring
factions.
But there is some fear that OPEC+ could instead decide to
reduce its cuts if crude prices keep rising ahead of its December meeting, said
Craig Erlam, also of OANDA.
"The vaccine news has been a gamechanger for
the outlook. No longer is OPEC+ the only major upside risk," Erlam
added.
A combination of OPEC+ and vaccine optimism has helped crude
prices move higher, although they've yet to break out more meaningfully, said
Bjornar Tonhaugen, Rystad Energy's head of oil markets.
But that stronger
pricing jump could come in 2021, he said, when demand finally begins to
rebound.
"Until the end of this year, global oil demand will stay
suppressed owing to the growing extent of global curfews and lockdowns, with
Europe still the epicenter for restrictions," Tonhaugen added.
As MRC
informed previously, global oil demand may have already peaked, according to
BP's latest long-term energy outlook, as the COVID-19 pandemic kicks the world
economy onto a weaker growth trajectory and accelerates the shift to cleaner
fuels.
Earlier this year, BP said the deadly coronavirus outbreak could
cut global oil
demand growth by 40 per cent in 2020, putting pressure on Opec producers and
Russia to curb supplies to keep prices in check.
And in September 2019,
six world's major petrochemical companies in Flanders, Belgium, North
Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and the Netherlands (Trilateral Region) announced the
creation of a consortium to jointly investigate how naphtha or gas steam
crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels.
The Cracker of the Future consortium, which includes BASF, Borealis, BP,
LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, aims to produce base chemicals while also
significantly reducing carbon emissions. The companies agreed to invest in
R&D and knowledge sharing as they assess the possibility of transitioning
their base chemical production to renewable electricity.
Ethylene and
propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, excluding producers' inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer. |
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