Energy Update for the week of July 19, 2021:

• The big news over the weekend is the deal struck by OPEC + members on a production increase of 400,000 bpd starting in August with a goal of reducing the production cuts by 5.8M bbls by September 2022.  This has crude retreating to start the week and is currently down over $4 bbl now.
• COVID case surge is also impacting crude pricing as demand is declining and inventory is rising.  The U.S. CDC reported the seven-day average of cases increased 70% in one week.
• Propane is lower to start the week in response to the crude decline.  Last week propane increased at the close of the week based on a dismal inventory report.  The average four-week build is only 1.1M bbls versus last year's 2.8M bbls.  See the below picture for actual U.S. propane inventory which is below the five-year average.
• Baker Hughes release the oil rig report and indicated an increase this week of 2 rigs taking the count of active rigs to 380.