

Commodities Focus
S&P Global Commodity Insights
S&P Global Commodity Insights analysis of key news and pricing issues from across the global shipping, natural gas, power, petrochemicals, agriculture, and coal markets.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 15, 2019 • 18min
Offshore Technology Conference at 50 spotlights increasingly robust deepwater
At its 50th year, Houston's Offshore Technology Conference highlighted panels that showed a global deepwater that has become increasingly robust, with several countries tendering for the first time in years and oil and gas operators busy planning deep and often remote wells around the world. Some...

May 14, 2019 • 33min
As US-China trade dispute widens, uncertainty weighs on commodity markets
The US-China trade dispute has widened in recent days, with China announcing increased tariffs on $60 billion of US goods, including LNG, just days after the US raised tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, with the possibility of tariffs on all other Chinese imports. The trade tensions...

May 10, 2019 • 13min
US refining margins poised for recovery after dismal Q1
S&P Global Platts editors Seth Clare and Kristian Tialios unpack first-quarter earnings from the US refining sector and discuss the causes for the industry’s lackluster margins. OPEC+ production cuts, sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, and new supply curtailments in Canada all made the...

May 3, 2019 • 17min
Offshore Technology Conference celebrates 50th anniversary, long-awaited revival of offshore sector
The Offshore Technology Conference promises to be a special event this year -- not only is it the 50th anniversary of the well-attended Houston event, but offshore exploration globally is heating up in a big way. Project tenders are estimated to nearly double this year what they were in 2018, Latin...

Apr 11, 2019 • 13min
US midstream sector eyes LNG opportunities, Mexico growth and financial overhauls
S&P Global Platts senior natural gas writer Harry Weber and S&P Global Market Intelligence midstream finance reporter Allison Good preview with natural gas managing editor Joe Fisher the upcoming first-quarter earnings season for midstream companies, which starts April 17 with Kinder...

Apr 9, 2019 • 7min
US, Asian zorba prices rise, but impact on other scrap items and alloys minimal
Though aluminum scrap sources in the US and Asia have noticed an uptick in zorba prices in the past month, prices of other scrap items have only inched upwards in the same time frame. Alloy prices, meanwhile, have been stagnant if not down slightly. Mayumi Watanabe, senior editor out of Tokyo, and...

Apr 5, 2019 • 7min
IMO 2020: Evolving storage dynamics in Asia in the run up to 2020
The new sulfur cap set by the International Maritime Organization will be implemented in January 2020. As the sulfur cut is so drastic, from 3.5% to 0.5%, uncertainty continues to grip the industry, which does not seem to have a clear picture on how the market will become after 2020. In this...

Apr 2, 2019 • 9min
Lessons from AFPM 2019: Crude grades, Venezuela, jet fuel, fires
S&P Global Platts oil market editors Seth Clare, Laura Huchzermeyer, Maria Eugenia Garcia and Daron Jones discuss the most talked about themes they heard while attending the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers' Annual Meeting in San Antonio, one of the largest energy industry events...

Mar 28, 2019 • 20min
California ISO’s Steve Berberich talks renewables, storage and reliability
Increasing renewable integration is poised to transform the California power grid in the coming years. Steve Berberich, CEO and president of the California Independent System Operator, talks with Kassia Micek and Kelli Ainsworth, senior pricing specialists on the S&P Global Platts’ North...

Mar 27, 2019 • 5min
US Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 252 bodes well for future exploration in the region
US Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 252 saw the largest number of total high bids in two years and four auctions. The 30 oil company participants were willing to spend on more acreage to replenish their inventories and prop up production, although mostly around existing fields. Does this mean that more...