Momma put those drills on the ground, and unleash the U.S. energy producer, assuming they have the stomach to do it! The UPI and Dan Graeber reported that “U.S. presidential remarks about Alaska and senate measures on offshore drilling may point to an executive action on oil and gas," authorities on the matter said. "We're going to take care of Alaska too," President Donald Trump told Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, during remarks on the signing of an executive order on national lands. "Don't “worry about it."  The UPI said that, “In an executive order signed Wednesday, the Trump administration ordered the Interior Department to review national monument designations, calling such designations an example of federal over-reach. The review process could result in an advantage to industries ranging from logging and ranching, to oil and natural gas. Advocacy and federal insiders have said an executive order that could be released as early as Friday would call for a review of actions enacted by the previous administration that banned Arctic and Atlantic drilling, as well as moratoriums for parts of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Bloomberg reported that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday is going to revise a five-year schedule for auctioning offshore drilling rights with the aim of potentially including territory left out by former President Barack Obama. Trump’s order also aims to reverse a potentially more enduring decision by Obama to indefinitely withdraw most U.S. Arctic waters and some Atlantic Ocean areas from leasing forever. "It is better to produce energy here under reasonable regulations than to have it produced overseas with no regulations," Zinke told reporters at a White House briefing to describe the order Trump is scheduled to sign Friday. 

But as, “Oil companies awash in crude from onshore drilling into dense shale formations in Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota may have little appetite for leases in the Atlantic or the Arctic. Those onshore wells don’t yield crude for long, but they also cost much less. By contrast, in the Arctic, Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, development costs are high. "Even as President Trump opens drilling almost everywhere, risk-averse companies are looking at the low-hanging fruit," said Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst with the Price Futures Group. “It’s a lot cheaper to ramp up shale production, turn a quick profit without any vision about long-term sustainable off shore projects.”

Maybe that was why oil fell yesterday but more than likely it was because of Libya. Oil is trying to rebound after concerns about oversupply due to the restart of a Libyan oil field and economic growth seemed to have stepped into the equation.

The U.S. GDP is not expected to be a blockbuster but the earnings from the big tech names are keeping stock market spirits high for now. The dollar reaction to today's report as well as the Baker Hugh’s rig count may set the tone for this market.

The oil market is still focused on the short term as we face a future of potential supply deficits. Today we will get the rig counts that may feed into the myth that U.S. shale will replace OPEC cuts and conventional oil projects while we know that the discoveries of new oil is almost at a record low.

From a technical viewpoint, it was probably good that we saw a washout on the downside as the recent sell-off has been slow and in tiny pieces. Once the market broke $49.00 a barrel we held $48.00 and now we are back above $49.00 again. As an extension of OPEC production cut looms, we are getting the sense that we should soon see this market turnaround and one might want to use the weakness to establish longtime strategies in both futures and options.

Natural gas still has production issues. While the report was in line with expectations, the weak production numbers and rising demand is raising concerns. The Energy Information Admintation reported that working gas in storage was 2,189 bcf as of Friday, April 21, 2017, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 74 bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 358 bcf less than last year now and 299 bcf above the five-year average of 1,890 bcf. At 2,189 bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range.

At the same time, the U.S. is expanding exports. The Washington Post reported that Poland has signed its first deal to purchase liquefied natural gas from a U.S. supplier, a step that will help the country’s efforts to cut its dependence on deliveries from Russia, officials said Thursday. The head of Polish gas giant PGNiG, Piotr Wozniak, called it a “historic moment” for the company which is “gaining a new partner in LNG trade” in North America and becoming a “gateway” that opens for U.S. gas in northern Europe.