Focus On Fracking -- February 20, 2023

Link here.

The lede:

• natural gas prices settle ​at a 28 month low;
• commercial crude oil inventories are at a ​20 month high after ​8 straight increases​ and a record 12.1% jump YTD;
• global oil production exceeded demand by ​440,000 barrels per day in ​January, despite OPEC production that was ​931,000 barrels per day below their reduced quota

The "fudge factor":

Furthermore, since last week’s “unaccounted for crude oil” was at [-702,000] barrels per day, that means there was a 2,669,000 barrel per day difference between this week's balance sheet error and the EIA's crude oil balance sheet error from a week ago, and hence the changes to supply and demand from that week to this one that are indicated by this week's report are off by that much, thus rendering any such comparisons meaningless nonsense....