Summary of Weekly Petroleum Data for the week ending May 14, 2021 ...........................................................
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.1 million barrels per day during the week ending May 14, 2021 which was 96,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 86.3% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging 4.6 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, increased by 0.9 million barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.0 million barrels per day, 10.9% more than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 1.1 million barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 267,000 barrels per day.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 1.3 million barrels from the previous week. At 486.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about 1% below the five year average for this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.0 million barrels last week and are about 2% below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline and blending components inventories both decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.3 million barrels last week and are about 5% below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 0.4 million barrels last week and are about 18% below the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 0.2 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.2 million barrels a day, up by 19.1% from the same period last year. Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, up by 33.9% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 19.6% from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 105.8% compared with the same four-week period last year.
Black Blade (a.k.a. Dennis Erectus):
This week's EIA Petroleum Inventory Status Report is SLIGHTLY BEARISH as Crude inventories increased by 1.3 million bbls while Total Commercial Petroleum Inventories decreased 0.2 million bbls as refinery utilization increased slightly to around 86.3. The big news this week of course are 1) the continuing saga of hacked software at the Colonial Pipeline; 2) Biden giving Putin a pass on the new "Nord Stream 2" Natgas Pipeline from Russia to Europe while shutting down domestic US pipelines; and 3) the rumored lifting of oil export sanctions against Iran. Seems that the Colonial Pipeline people paid off the Russian hackers and are still having software issues but this time with their communications software. Seems that the hackers failed to live up to their end of the bargain. Meanwhile, as Bitcoin is crashing hard the hackers look to not have gained as much as they had hoped with the Crypto down nearly 40% in the last couple days. "President" Biden has backed off on criticizing Russia and is now supporting the construction of the Nord Stream Pipeline from Russia to Germany. How nice. He stops construction on our XL Keystone Pipeline here in the US after all the Russian hacker issues and now supports the Russian (Russian Collusion maybe?). Finally, yesterday and today the Russian reps said that Iran has met the conditions of the "nuclear agreement" and should be back online selling oil exports. But this morning the Russian rep said that he was "misunderstood" and "taken out of context". Those comments didn't help and so the global oil prices are still trending lower.
As for the "Blade Portfolio" we continue to hold our shares of VSTO, MACE, POWW and MAGS. Crime rates continue climbing as evidenced by Chicago Shootings back in full force as big urban society collapses. Violent and property crimes are "through the roof!" as they say. People are sick of it and as the political progressive elites cry "defund the police" and restrict the police from doing their job, the people are realizing that they must do "the job" themselves and are arming up and putting security measures into place. We see this continuing and never getting any better because of the politics and for "Wokeism" optics. It wold appear that both Louisiana and Texas may soon join other states (20 so far) and become "Constitutional Carry" states. Others are also debating the laws as well. Looks like a continuing surge in sales for firearms and ammo as well as personal defense products. We added a few more firearms to the Blade Arsenal as well. Primarily a couple AK-platform pistols - an AKV-9 (9mm) and AK-P (7.62x39mm) from Palmetto State Armory. Also added a couple cases of 9x19mm FMJ, .45 ACP FMJ and 7.62x39 ammo as well as a few accessories such as 30 round magazines which are now loaded up and ready to go. Added a new Primary Arms G2 ACSS prism scope and two Sig Sauer Romeo5 red dots for other carbines and rifles.
We added more Silver American Eagles and shares in KL, AUY and GFI this week. Silver and Gold prices moved higher over $1,860 level as all eyes are focused on pressured stock markets, surging inflation and other alternative investments. Hard assets including real estate are in great demand with inventories said to be down by 80% and many desperate new home buyers. Even "slums" and "shacks" are going for top dollar now as desperate Millennials look for the starter home but are pushed out of the general real estate market. Meanwhile, construction materials keep rising and builders are raising prices and changing terms on contracts. That said, lumber prices retreated quite a bit this last week so maybe rising prices will slow down in coming months. We continue to methodically add physical and mining shares while eyes are diverted to the more fad plays.We also have a variety of Cryptocurrencies in our portfolio. Inflation has and continues to rise as now we see the rates of inflation surging again currently running at about a 14% rate (ShadowStats).
We continue to hold our "ETH" based Cryptocurrencies. Our BTC now sits at near $40,000 give or take a couple thousand, down hard by nearly 40% or so. Yikes!, that said, our other Cryptos are rather mixed. Seems investors got spooked by Elon Musk talking out his ass (as is usually the case) when he talked about not accepting Cryptos for his Tesla automobile reversing past statements that he would. That said, no one knows where the Cryptos will settle at for now. We are holding and watching but may even add a little more here and there over time. We continue to hold BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC, MKR, TEZOS, XRP ALGO, COMP, CGLD, GRT, BAND, LMY-LYP and FORTH. Only takes another scandal or hack to create problems in the Crypto space and with the all present threat of government interference some investors are getting a bit nervous.
We sold all our T shares at the open yesterday on revelations that the Telecom was in big trouble and decided to slash the dividend while shedding much of their media segment in a deal with Discovery Television. A smart move for the future perhaps but we bought these shares for income. Since the income is going bye-bye will did the same. We readjusted the "Blade Portfolio" at this time as well selling off GRME and PPL. We reallocated funds into ET and EPD to increase that position for additional income. We continue to slowly add shares of KOS, MVO, ET and EPD while holding steady on our shares of APTS, BRG, DMLP, SPH, VZ, HEP, IRM, and CAPL. We continue to add to our eREIT FUNDRISE which flipped some projects at a decent profit while adding new ones. We continue to hold private equity in the multi-family residential sector for added income. As for our own physical rental properties we are back to the table and looking to sell one condo property and reallocate the funds to another area with higher growth *the so called "Silicon Slopes" are of Utah where Silicon Valley companies such as Adobe, etc. are moving to now and where some already established ones already exist such a Qualtrics. Our own rentals remain fully occupied with stable renters and continue to provide decent cash flow. We are also looking to increase rents as costs move higher (thanks inflation). As for our stripper wells we have three in production and one continues to remain idled. No news on proposed actions in the oil segment at this time.
Food inflation continues to surge higher as the Feral Government continues to devalue the US Dollar by "printing" $Trillions out of thin air. Could get very interesting as talks now are progressing on another Fourth Stimulus check for Americans. Of course the Child Care checks (for those with minor children) will begin to get a few extras thousand bucks per kid starting this week. No such luck for single folks, those without kids and the elderly retirees (hey where's AARP at? Seems those AARP folks are first to "cut and run" when they are really needed). We will finish adding and stabilizing water storage plans by this weekend as a "mega-drought" for our region continues to be in the forecast. With major reservoirs like Lake Powell and Glenn Canyon at all time lows and little hope for relief we are taking preemptive steps "just in case" and recycling old water into crops and adding fresh water for storage. We packed the freezer with the three elements of life (chicken, beef and pork). We alos added some fresh fish which we can easily catch locally (various main trout species). We added more jugs of olive oil, Also planted more crops (mostly tomatoes and beans and soon squash). We are getting a late start due to a few medical issues that needed attention but should be fine. Looking to add cold frames to extend the grow season for some sensitive crops this summer. Fruit trees are producing but not as much as in past years. Seems the cool and windy start kept the honey bees at bay and not as much pollination took place. Still, we should be good for this year on fresh fruit (Cherries, Peaches, Nectarines, and Apricots). The berries didn't fare as well this time (so far). Over all, no complaints and things look surprisingly good and stable.
As always, get out of debt and stay out of debt, accumulate physical Silver and Gold bullion as "portfolio insurance", and stockpile supplies of long term nonperishable foods and basic necessities into storage. After all we do "live in interesting times".
The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not the mineral rights! |
