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Oil Prices Hit Hard By Lower Refinery Runs – OilPrice.com

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Oil Prices Hit Hard By Lower Refinery Runs | OilPrice.com

Julianne Geiger

Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group.

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Oil prices took a tumble on Wednesday post-EIA report, despite a favorable crude inventory report that showed oil inventories in the United States had shrunk by nearly ten million barrels.

The culprit for the downward price movement? Lower refinery throughputs for the week. In other words, the threat of refinery maintenance season.

Inventory levels are still above the five-year average for this time of year, and the summer driving season is now behind us. A new season now approaches: the dreaded maintenance season.

That fear sent oil prices tumbling despite today’s inventory draw. At 3:00 pm EDT, the WTI benchmark had fallen 3.32% to $41.34. The Brent benchmark had fallen by 2.83% to $44.29.

October WTI futures had also slipped, to $41.33—a $1.41 loss (-3.30%) on the day. WTI futures for the November contract were also down, by $1.42, at $41.66.

Refinery maintenance season is appropriately timed to coincide with the dip in demand as the summer driving season draws to a close, but for crude producers, it is a definitive sign that their refineries will be calling for less crude at a time when all eyes are on future oil demand.

Refiners are unlikely to balk at the downtime right now, as refinery margins have dropped off considerably, with some refiners looking to convert their facilities to biofuels. It is likely that instead, depressed margins and lower demand for gasoline will encourage refiners to take advantage of an extended maintenance period.

Gasoline margins, for example, have been about $1 per barrel in northwestern Europe for about the past two months—this is a drop from $12 per barrel just one year ago.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

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Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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