Feb 2 @ 10:55am by Matt Smith in Crude Oil, Global Energy, Natural Gas, UK natural gas
Ok, ok, I’ll put the Star Wars theme to bed. For today, my friends, we are going to look at some facts and figures about storage across a number of our dearly beloved commodities and a number of geographies – highlighting (for the most part) a theme of staunch stockpiles.
To further provide some educational information, in addition to the focus on energy, there is also some trivia relating to the ultimate sultan of storage…the squirrel. So enjoy!
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Jan 20 @ 10:53am by Matt Smith in Crude Oil, Economy, Global Energy, Natural Gas, UK natural gas

Good day, good day! Crude has toppled below the monkey bar of $100 late on this week as – would you believe - Euro debt concerns arise once more. In addition, crude has been clobbered by a disheartening domestic demand situation. Total product demand is down 7.2% on this time last year, while gasoline demand has just plummeted to its lowest level since 2001. And while on the subject of plummeting to new lows, the good ship natty has keeled over and made a decade low as supply remains staunch and the storage surplus swells (…while weather is set to swelter). Ay, there’s the rub, and here’s the grub. » read more
Jul 28 @ 10:58am by Matt Smith in Capital Markets, Crude Oil, Economy, Global Energy, Natural Gas
At a time when we approach the unprecedented potential of a default by the US on its national debt, it is worth acknowledging that there may well be trouble ahead (…and imminently). As we face the music and prepare to lace up our dancing shoes, it seems prudent to remember where we were a year ago, and then appraise whether current downbeat perceptions are muddying the water. So from the starting point of Energyland™ to the general economy, let’s take a look at ten reference points, to see if we need to throw in the towel, or just throw some shapes: » read more
Tags: Brent crude oil, coal, Crude Oil, equities, gasoline demand, gasoline prices, Global Energy, global oil demand, house prices, industrial demand, inflation, manufacturing, NBP, PMIs, S&P/CaseShiller, unemployment rate, US natural gas, WTI crude oil
Dec 22 @ 10:21am by Matt Smith in Natural Gas, UK natural gas, risk management
Earlier in the year, I wrote a post about the sideways movement in US natural gas and crude oil prices, called ‘Keep Calm And Carry On’. Well, now seems an opportune time to flip the coin, as we are seeing UK natural gas prices panic and freak out.
NBP (
National Balancing Point – aka UK natural gas) prompt month prices have rallied as much as 36% since early November, as a cold start to winter has caught the market off-guard and depleted storage levels at a rapid clip. After last year’s coldest winter in over thirty years, there was the expectation that the UK was owed a mild winter; but this seems not to be. The entire UK has spent much of December under a blanket of snow (a rare occasion in itself), while temperatures are registering record lows. Given this backdrop, it is not wholly unsurprising that prices are both panicking and freaking out to reach twenty-two month highs, as gas demand
reaches record levels.
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