Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill ONLY tonight – Wednesday AM wholesale prices will drop 2 cents then Thursday look for another 2 cents – Be Safe Today!
NYMEX Crude $ 36.34 DN $.8400
NY Harbor ULSD $1.1777 DN $.0188
NYMEX Gasoline $1.4082 DN $.0144
NEWS
Oil prices settled at their lowest level in more than a week on Tuesday, as hope for a coordinated output freeze among major crude producing nations continued to fade. April West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 84 cents, or 2.3%, to settle at $36.34 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It saw its lowest settlement since March 4, after losing 3.4% on Monday. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 79 cents, or 2%, to $38.74 a barrel.
Meaningful coordination from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries “hasn’t appeared likely for some time now, but an OPEC premium appeared to be priced in during recent weeks nonetheless, and that premium will have to come off,” Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric told MarketWatch. WTI prices could “at least see a retesting” of the $30 level in the short term, he said. “Some time in the $20s isn’t guaranteed but certainly wouldn’t be too surprising at this point.” Traders sold off oil contracts Monday following news that Iran’s oil minister said the country wouldn’t participate in an output freeze with other nations, dimming hopes for such a plan, which had helped prop up prices since it was announced last month. Virendra Chauhan, oil analyst at Energy Aspects, said if all the major producers freeze production at current levels it would only give market share to Iran. “The reality is we don’t see a production cut until December,” Chauhan. He added that the oil market at the moment has a natural cap near current levels, given the quick availability of new supply that comes online at higher prices. “What can happen is…you have a rally that kills the rally.” A monthly report from OPEC Monday showed the group’s output declined by less than 200,000 barrels in February. Much of that came from pipeline disruptions in Nigeria and Iraq, some of which have already been repaired. The report also showed that output from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait rose last month.
The market will get updates on U.S. oil inventories from the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday and the closely watched report from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday. Analysts polled by Platts expect the data to show an increase of 2.7 million barrels in crude stockpiles for the week ended March 11, along with a decline of 3.1 million barrels for gasoline supplies and a fall of 1 million barrels for distillate stocks, which include heating oil.
Have a Great Day!