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First Look - Asian crude buyers deal with fallout of US sanctions

Oil is trading higher by nearly $1, extending gains from last week
- Crude prices have rallied to the highest level in five months as market participants digest the impact of stronger US sanctions
Asian oil buyers in turmoil over US sanctions (BBG)
- Following the most aggressive US sanctions so far, buyers in Asia have been scrambling to deal with the situation
- Independent refiners in China’s Shandong region held an emergency meeting to understand whether they could still take delivery of crude en route
  - Last week, the port of Shandong announced they would not allow the offloading of sanctioned crude
- Indian refinery executives said they are still evaluating the documents with their legal teams
- Increased sanctions enforcement could lead to a tighter global oil market if flows are successfully disrupted

It keeps getting colder…
- Natural gas was lower for the February contract, down 2c to $3.96 (7:13 AM CT) after trading around $4.25 in the Sunday evening/overnight market
- The month of January is forecasted to be the third coldest January of the 2000s, according to the Commodity Weather Group
- At 1037 HDDs, this month would only be behind January of 2014 and 2004 in terms of heating degree days
Gas flows into US LNG facilities reached another record this weekend as new plants start-up
- US LNG feed gas nominations were modeled at 15.74 Bcf/d (Criterion Research)
- Nominations have dropped over the past few days, but Plaquemines LNG reached new highs
- Plaquemines was granted approval from FERC on Friday to flow gas into LTS Blocks 5-6 and have since increased plant gas intake to a high of 951 MMcf/d on Sunday evening