Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed tonight, Wholesale prices are down 7 cents today and will not change Friday – Be Safe!

NYMEX Crude $ 26.21 DN $1.2400
NY Harbor ULSD $ .9791 UP $0.0042
NYMEX Gasoline $ .9417 DN $0.0008

NEWS
Oil futures fell again on Thursday, with West Texas Intermediate crude marking its lowest settlement in nearly 13 years, as traders concluded that last week’s modest fall in U.S. crude supplies wasn’t enough to outweigh pressure from a global supply glut and worries about weaker oil demand.

March WTI crude fell by $1.24, or 4.5%, to settle at $26.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after touching a low of $26.05. That was the lowest settlement since May 6, 2003, according to FactSet. Prices have now fallen for six sessions in a row. April Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost 78 cents, or 2.5%, to $30.06 a barrel.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday reported that crude inventories fell by around 800,000 barrels for the week ended Feb. 5, which marked the first weekly decline in five weeks. But “the market took the view…that the decline in U.S. crude-oil stockpiles would be temporary and this kept downward pressure on prices overnight,” said an ANZ Bank report.

The International Energy Agency and the EIA said this week they expect such oversupply to persist for months, keeping prices low. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries earlier Wednesday cut its forecasts for global oil-demand growth, citing lower consumer appetite in places such as Russia and Brazil despite low prices. “While everyone is busy talking about how low oil prices are, we’ve seen very little evidence of production cuts from the U.S. or elsewhere,” said Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric.

“To make matters worse, the ongoing volatility in global markets is a clear indication that emerging-market growth in oil demand won’t be as reliable as it has been in recent years,” he said. Most stock markets around the globe took a hit on Thursday.In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank, in part, due to the tumbling oil prices. For oil, “everyone says we’re nearing a bottom, yet that isn’t really what the supply/demand picture is indicating right now,” said Fraser.

Theoretically, a coordinated cut by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is “exactly what this market needs to begin a climb higher,” he said. Late Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the United Arab Emirates energy minister said that current prices have already forced non-OPEC producers to at least cap output increases. The news helped WTI prices pare some losses in electronic trading to move back above $27. But coordinated OPEC cuts aren’t likely to happen anytime soon. “Until Saudi Arabia shows a willingness to join in on production cuts, comments from non-OPEC Russia and other OPEC members are “largely meaningless,” Fraser said earlier Thursday.

Dollar weakness that followed dovish remarks by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen regarding the outlook for interest rate increases also failed to support oil prices.

Natural-gas futures also moved lower Thursday after the EIA reported a weekly supply fall of 70 billion cubic feet. That was less than the decline of between 81 billion and 85 billion cubic feet expected by analysts polled by Platts. March natural gas settled down 5.2 cents, or 2.5%, at $1.994 per million British thermal units.