Leveling The Field. The Energy Report 02/10/2025

Oil prices are on the rise as risk on trading abounds as President Trump tries to level the global trade field by tacking on a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports into the US. This is sending a signal that the US is no longer a dumping ground for other countries subsidized metals. For years US steel and aluminum makers have complained about China and other countries dumping cheap metal now are basking in Trumps new tariffs. U.S. Steel and Alcoa stocks are rallying in premarket action, and it appears that President Trump is making American Companies great again.

It is also raising oil prices and US gasoline, and diesel crack spreads are rising. That should inspire more US oil and gas drilling and investments.

Last week the Baker Hushes rig count started to rise as drillers increased the oil and gas. The rig count is up four from last week at 586 rigs. A year ago, 623 rigs were active. The count shows that 480 rigs are drilled for oil, up one from the previous week, and 100 are drilling for natural gas, up two from the previous week. The count also shows six miscellaneous rigs, up one from the previous week.

There are more signs that President Trump is acting on his mandates to get Iranian oil exports back down to zero. President Trump is looking to sanction any shipping company that deals with Iranian oil or any banking situation. He’s even looking at ways to crack down on private Chinese oil companies that are continuing to buy Iranian crude. Oil Price reported that 3 vessels carrying Iranian crude to China have become the target of U.S. sanctions. The sanctions have affected one very-large crude carrier (VLCC) and two Aframaxes that the Treasury Department said helped move Iranian oil to China.

The Times of Isreal reported that US President Donald Trump said he would prefer to make a deal with Iran rather than “bombing the hell out of it,” in a media interview published Saturday, adding that Israel would not carry out a strike if there were an agreement. “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it,” he told the New York Post aboard Air Force One on Friday. “They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.” “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them,” he predicted, though he also said he would not discuss potential negotiations with Tehran.

Still the AP reported that— President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he’s given his advisers instructions to obliterate Iran if it assassinates him. “If they did that they would be obliterated,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”

Oil and gas demand is also solid. While the markets are worried that tariffs will impede growth, the oil market seemed to suggest otherwise. President Trump may have to cut taxes on oil to get prices lower.

Weather is the key again for natural gas. Just when you bought into the spring like a weather tease, you are now going to get slammed, and you should have downloaded the Fox Weather ap. Fox Weather reports that arcade of winter storms to blast across US with snow expected to reach 200 million in 40 states. The FOX Forecast Center said at least three separate winter storms are expected to sweep across a large portion of the U.S. during the week ahead, bringing the threat of widespread snow and ice to tens, if not hundreds, of millions of Americans from coast to coast. Natural gas is moving on the forecast.

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