In this week’s Market Movers Americas, presented by Kassia Micek:
• Cold front to lift gas demand, support spot prices
• Russian diesel continues to flood into Brazil
• Texas grid operator seeks to improve winter preparedness
• California, Quebec to release emissions auction results
This week, a cold front is sweeping through most of the US and is expected to boost natural gas demand and support spot gas prices. Average temperatures are expected to dip to 46.5 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.6 degrees below normal this week. The colder weather should raise gas demand across the US by nearly 9 Bcf to just under 119 Bcf/d.
Brazil continues to import large volumes of ultra low sulfur diesel produced by Russian refiners, which has lately been heard trading about 10 cents/gal cheaper than ULSD exported from the US Gulf Coast. Market sources say that more local Brazilian firms are turning to Russian product to remain competitive with Petrobras’ low prices, which has resulted in Russia-origin ULSD making up about 90% of Brazil’s import market.
In power markets, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas had planned to announce on Wednesday how much capacity it procured through an Oct. 2 solicitation, but has canceled the request due to limited response. The grid operator had requested as much as 3 GW of dispatchable resources, but only received 11.1 MW in response. The resources were intended to lessen the risk of an Energy Emergency Alert this winter if a storm similar to the one in December 2022 happens again, as part of ERCOT's ongoing efforts for better winter preparedness.
I’m Kassia Micek. Thanks for kicking off your Monday with S&P Global Commodity Insights.