Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped tonight, Thursday AM wholesale prices will go back up 2 cents – Be Safe!

NYMEX Crude $ 45.09 DN $.1400
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5126 UP $.0150
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3894 UP $.0262

NEWS

Oil futures tallied a loss of 24% for the third quarter, after ending Wednesday lower on the back of a report revealing the first U.S. crude-supply increase in three weeks. The report also showed a modest decline in domestic production, helping prices limit losses for the session. November West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $45.09 a barrel, down 14 cents, or 0.3%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, trading between a high of $45.85 and a low of $44.68, according to FactSet data.

WTI prices, based the front-month contracts, lost 8.4% for the month and were 24% lower for the quarter. Year to date, they’re down by more than 15%. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange tacked on 14 cents, or 0.3%, to $48.37 a barrel. Year to date, prices have fallen more than 15%. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday an increase of four million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended Sept. 25. That was the first climb in three weeks. Analysts polled by Platts expected supplies to be unchanged, while the American Petroleum Institute Tuesday said supplies jumped 4.6 million barrels.

Part of the reason for the increase in crude supplies was less demand from refineries, where activity decreased with maintenance season in effect. Refinery utilization fell to 89.8% last week from 90.9%. Domestic oil production, however, showed a decline for the week, with total output at about 9.1 million barrels a day, down 40,000 barrels, according to the EIA. Production for the lower 48 states, which excludes Alaska, fell 21,000 barrels to 8.63 million barrels a day. The domestic oil production fell, but “very slightly,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors. “Bottom line, world-wide supplies are increasing.” Zahir expects Wednesday trading to be volatile, given that it is the end of the month and quarter. “In the days and weeks to come, we will see further [crude-supply] builds and rallies we have may be short lived,” Zahir said.

Gasoline supplies rose 3.3 million barrels while distillate stockpiles fell 300,000 barrels last week, according to the EIA. Analysts polled by Platts expected gasoline stockpiles to be down 500,000 barrels and distillate inventories, which include heating oil, to show a decline of 1.2 million barrels. Traders are keeping a close watch on economic data for hints on energy demand. Data from large U.S. payroll processor ADP Wednesday showed that companies in the private sector added 200,000 jobs in September. Economists were expecting an increase of about 190,000. The Labor Department issues its closely watched employment report on Friday.

The official China September manufacturing purchasing manager index will be released on Thursday.