The Islamic Republic has been using various tactics to ship crude abroad without being detected, including tankers switching off transponders and documents stating the oil did not originate from Iran. While Iranian Oil Minister Bijun Zanganeh last week said. “America has waged a war with Iran with no blood,” referring to sanctions on Iran oil.
Iran’s continued defiance of U.S. sanctions skirting official trackers, we estimate China has been a huge buyer of Iranian oil, while still buying U.S. oil. But the U.S. figures seem well below of what the shipments truly are. In the overnight electronic session, the November crude oil is currently trading at 4051 which is 26 points higher. The trading range has been 4058 to 3978.
On the natural gas front, the October contract expires today. Even with today’s lower start traders expect prices to trend higher with lower domestic production, higher demand in the winter, recovering global gas prices in Europe and Asia-America’s key export destinations for liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The coming winter and closing in on the end of an active hurricane season that has disrupted LNG operations and exports along the U.S. Gulf Coast, coupled with recovering gas demand in Asia and Europe which could send natural gas prices above $3 per million British thermal units. In the overnight electronic session the November natural gas is currently trading at 2.730 which is .077 lower. The trading range has been 2.823 to 2.704.