Americas Daily Oil Summary: Rain Stalls Oil-Sands Wildfires

A large wildfire near the Candain oil sands city of Fort McMurray stalled overnight and was not expected to advance on Thursday during wet weather, the local authority said May 16, cited by Reuters.

• US Gulf crude exports have had a strong start in May, with volumes primarily targeting Europe as it recovers from peak maintenance in April.
• ExxonMobil confirmed its 250,000 bpd Joliet refinery in Illinois has completed planned maintenance and is in the process of restarting operations.
• Mexican crude exports rebounded in H1 May to 836k b/d after the country’s second-largest refinery was ordered to reduce utilisation rates amid poor air quality in Mexico City, Bloomberg said.
• Pemex’s Tula refinery in Mexico has been ordered by environmental authorities to reduce processing because of poor air quality in the local area.
• Colombia’s Trasadino pipeline is forecast to remain offline until December, Ecopetrol’s CEO said, cited by Reuters via Pipeline & Gas Journal.
• Greenback: The USD index has lifted 0.4% from overnight lows as Treasury yields have pushed higher to retrace a large part of yesterday's CPI and retail sales inspired rally, with USDJPY rising more than 1%.
• The Atlanta Fed GDPNow has been revised down to 3.6% from 3.77% in yesterday’s update.
• Industrial production was slightly weaker than expected in April, unchanged on the month (cons 0.1).
• Initial jobless claims dipped by slightly less than expected to a seasonally adjusted 222k (cons 220k) in the week to May 11.