Assistir: Market Movers Americas, July 11-15: Weather, geopolitics elevate shipping rates and US gas and power

In this week's Market Movers: Strong European demand for US crude oil imports is pushing dirty tanker prices to fresh highs, an ongoing heat wave in Texas is lifting power prices amid lower wind generation, another smaller storage build could fuel a recovery in natural gas futures, and US high-sulfur petcoke faces a supply glut that promises to erode prices.

Starting in the shipping market, Americas dirty tanker market is eyeing sky-high rates, which jumped as much as 44% last week on regional Aframax routes and 11.3% on Very Large Crude Carriers headed east. Market participants are balancing tight local position lists with a steady stream of cargo inquiry heading into the week. Demand for US-origin crudes from Europe continues to drive the flurry of fixing activity, sending Suezmax trans-Atlantic freight up 19% on the week. Exports to Europe remain strong as buyers look to replace Russian barrels with WTI crude, which was last seen at a 4 dollar and 14 cents per barrel discount to domestic Forties grades, according to the Platts crude ArbFlow calculator.

Turning to the power sector, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has forecast new all-time record peakloads as a heat wave continues to roast Texas. Triple-digit temperatures were forecast in major demand centers in ERCOT, significantly above normal levels. ERCOT on-peak for July 11 delivery nearly doubled in Friday trading on the Intercontinental Exchange to price over 460 dollars per megawatt hour. Forecasts for lower wind generation could add upward pricing momentum. The heat wave in Texas is part of a trend of above-average temperatures that have swept across the US Southeast, Northeast, and Central regions so far this summer, driving up gas-fired power generation to cope with soaring cooling demand.

This leads us to natural gas: robust power sector demand for natural gas last week could translate into to a second consecutive smaller-than-expected weekly natural gas storage report this Thursday, potentially fueling further recovery in US natural gas futures. The most recent weekly gas storage report, which the US Energy Information Administration published on July 7, showed a net build of 60 billion cubic feet, well below market expectations. The NYMEX Henry Hub prompt-month contract spiked 14% in reaction the following day. This brings us to our social media question of the week: How much will the surge in US gas-for-power demand impact efforts to refill natural gas stocks before winter?

Lastly, US high-sulfur petcoke faces a supply glut and price pressure as Russia's war in Ukraine impacts the flow of crude oil into the Gulf. The US has replaced low-sulfur Russian crudes with heavier, high-sulfur Canadian crudes, leading to the production of more US high-sulfur petcoke. Petcoke supplies will be boosted further as US refineries ramp up run rates in response to firm gas and diesel demand. Meanwhile, China, once a top buyer of US petcoke, now sources much of its supply from Venezuela, where the product is lower-priced and abundant.

The Platts Atlas of Energy Transition is your map to the sustainable commodity markets of the future. You can explore the Atlas by visiting the address displayed on your screen. Thanks for kicking off your Monday with us and have a great week ahead.