US Weekly Oil Summary: US Launches Taskforce to Combat Red Sea Attack

The US launched a multinational operation, called Operation Prosperity Guardian, to safeguard start in the Red Sea as attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced major shipping companies to pause trade in the Red Sea.

• Oil exports out of Texas are surging in the final weeks of 2023, according to Reuters, driven by record production levels and the need to avoid high year-end taxes on inventories.GC exports are expected to average 5m b/d in the final two weeks of 2023.
• Cude inventories showed an unexpected build last week, with production rising to a new record of 13.3mb/d.
• USGC refiners have cut gasoline export prices to their lowest since Feb. 2021 amid shipping restrictions at the Panama Canal, according to Reuters.
• Oil output in the major US shale oil basins is forecast to fall by 1kbpd to 9.692mbpd in January according to the EIA drilling productivity report released yesterday.
• USD: The USD index continues to trade with a downward bias, with last Friday's recovery proving very short-lived. Overall strength in equity markets and general optimistic risk sentiment has extended the greenback weakness, with the DXY printing at the lowest levels since July 28th. This briefly extended the selloff from the October highs to over 5.5%.
• The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow for Q4 was revised down to 2.3% annualized from 2.7% in the Dec 19 update, after the latter had marked the highest for the Q4 vintage.
• US DATA: Core PCE At 1.9% Annualized Over Six Months, Lowest Since Sep 2020
• UMich report: Year-ahead inflation expectations plunged from 4.5% last month to 3.1% this month.