Goff Heating Oil Market Price Information for January to March 2023 including figures on Crude and Exchange Rate moves.
Brent Crude Dated ($ per Barrel)
Price at Start of Period: $81.60 Price at End of Period: $78.57
Highest Price in Period: $88.64 Lowest Price in Period: $71.30
Exchange rate varied over the period from a high of $1.2516 to a low of $1.1883
Resulting in a Heating Oil Price (Pence Per Litre) range: 23.06 ppl
Our review of 2022
2022 will go down in history as one of the most volatile years for oil and commodities.
ICE Brent Crude had a $64/b. trading range in 2022, reaching an intra-day high of $139/b on 7th March and an intra-day low of $75/b on 9th December.
The year began with strong fundamentals and the war in Ukraine pushed prices to all time highs. However, OPEC+ failed to increase oil supply by sufficient volumes. As a result inflation spiked, forcing the US Federal Reserve to aggressively hike interest rates.
The US Federal Reserve essentially "wrestled control" of the oil market from OPEC+ by slowing oil demand growth via higher interest rates. As a result Brent Crude ended the year up just 10.45% at $85.91/b.
Oil Market Key Events in 2022
January
Fundamentals strengthen as refinery outages and increased demand weigh on crude and diesel stocks.
February
Prices extended higher as Russian – Ukraine tensions rise. Russia finally invades on 24th Feb, sending oil markets into a volatile frenzy.
March
The war in Ukraine continues as the world looks for alternative energy supply. ICE Gasoil blows out on 9th March, peaking at $1665/t.
April
United States announced the release of 180 million barrels of crude oil (1 million barrels per day) of emergency reserves from 1st May 2022.
May
EU agreed a ban on imports of Russian oil from December, however, some European oil traders ceased buying Russian diesel in mid-May.
June
The US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.75% (75 basis points) which was the biggest interest rate rise since 1994.
July
US President Biden visits Saudi Arabia in the hope that OPEC will pump more oil. The Euro falls below $1.00.
August
OPEC+ announce production hike of 100,000 barrels per day, effective September. Rhine water levels fall to 31cms at Kaub, Germany.
September
OPEC+ announce cuts of 100,000 barrels per day, effective October. Recession fears cause oil demand worries. Nord Stream pipelines damaged in explosions.
October
OPEC+ announces production cut of 2 million barrels per day from November. President Biden announces release of 15 million barrels from SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve). French refinery strikes lead to refined product tightness in Europe.
November
Economic slowdown fears lead to demand concerns as FED hikes by 75bps, Saudi Arabia cuts oil prices and COVID cases spike in China.
December
OPEC leaves production quota unchanged. G7/EU ban on Russian crude takes effect.
So that the monthly time line but how about a report and some forward-looking predictions thrown in for good measure. Last year many reporters correctly predicted the direction oil prices would take and the scale of the price movements. Even without the reckoning of the Ukrainian invasion (which wasn't widely predicted), we still anticipated price rises and the strong likelihood of a major price spike; “we can say that the supply-demand situation remains critical and in fact the danger of a major price spike looks more likely this year than it did in 2021”. It was pointed out that declining investment in oil production coupled with rapid post-Covid demand recovery was putting huge pressure on prices. Attention was also focused on the incredible situation with regards gas, which by January 22 (again, before the Ukrainian invasion) was already trading at stratospheric levels which a number of comentators projected would encourage major energy users to switch away from gas (to oil), thus putting more pressure on the price of crude.
With a backdrop like that, it was little wonder that when Russia invaded Ukraine, the effect on oil markets was seismic, with crude hitting almost $140 per barrel by March. However, if we actually consider the year as a whole (rather than the crazy months of Spring), the overall price trajectory of oil – whilst broadly in an upwards direction – wasn’t perhaps as spectacular as might be assumed. On the first working day of 2022, the price of crude was $77 per barrel and yes, by March it had risen to $138. But by the final quarter of the year, prices were trending heavily downwards, such that by the final working day (30th Dec 2022), the price was actually “only” $86 per barrel – an inflation matching increase of 12% ($9 per barrel).
The devil however, is always in the detail and the $ price of crude only tells a fraction of the whole story. The first factor that ensured the Great British public experienced more than a mere $9 per barrel movement, was our old friend the exchange rate. Everyone knows the drill by now; oil is priced in $, which means it has to be converted to £ when it is sold in the UK. On the 30th December (2022) the price of diesel was $958 per tonne and the exchange rate was $1.2029 to the £ GBP. That gave a price of £796 per tonne and a pence per litre (ppl) cost of 67.32. Now compare the year-end exchange rate to the same day 12 months earlier (30th Dec 2021), when there was $1.3544 to the pound. If we applied that 2021 exchange rate to the 2022 price of diesel ($958), we actually would have ended the year at £707 per tonne (958/1.3544) or 59.79ppl. That’s an increase of 7.50ppl (+10%) as a result of the falling value of sterling, which has to be added to the basic 12% increase in the core cost of crude.
If there was one stand-out fuel story of 2022 it was not the price of crude, nor the crashing value of the pound, but the soaring cost of diesel. Whilst market commentators are often fixated by crude (which actually only directly affects refineries), it is finished product that matters most to consumers and diesel above all else, has the greatest impact when it comes to cost of living. And here again we had extra-ordinary movements in the price. Diesel started 2022 (4th Jan) at $677 per tonne and therefore logically should have ended the year around 12% higher ($760) if it had followed the same trajectory as crude. Imagine the scenes then, when it turned out that diesel ended the year over 40% up at $958 per tonne, which when added to the impact of the exchange rate, gave an increase of 25ppl (60%) in the cost of diesel. That certainly boots the paltry $9 per barrel crude increase well and truly out of the stands!
This brings us nicely on to our predictions for the new year, with number one being that there will be much greater focus in 2023 on refined fuels and in particular, diesel. Prediction number two is that for the first time since the Ukrainian invasion, Russia will begin to feel the pinch of sanctions and this will also be diesel related. Whereas the Western boycotts of Russian crude in 2022 simply reversed product flows away from Europe and into China and India, this will not be the case with Russian diesel (which will receive the strongest sanctions yet as of February of this year). The Asian economies all need crude to keep their refineries running, but what they don’t need is ready made diesel from Russia, which would only undermine Chinese and Indian refining capacity. In effect, Russian diesel will have nowhere to go and will be removed from the market – in the West because of sanctions and in the “East” because of refinery protectionism. As a result (prediction three), we can expect a major diesel spike in the first half of 2023, along with significant damage to the Russian refining industry (prediction four). Our next forecast is that once again the correlation between diesel and crude will evaporate, but this will be short-lived as non-Russian refining capacity ramps up and soon fulfils demand. By the second half of the year, diesel will start coming down in price and re-correlate with stabilising crude oil prices. And that’s our final and most bold prediction for 2023, which is that crude will be lower in price this year than in 2022. Oh…one more…oil markets this year will not be boring. They never are!
Additional Oil Market commentary & Market Data available from the BBC here: Market Data
The Office for National Statistics record the price of heating oil and publish monthly updates on the average delivered cost of a domestic delivery of 1000 litres of kerosene in the UK . The information held by the ONS is freely available online and can be found here: ONS Price of heating oil
The last monthly oil market report we published can be found here:
Heating Oil Market Price Information December 2022 - Goff Petroleum
Additional Oil Market commentary & Market Data available from the BBC here: Market Data