Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill ONLY tonight, Thursday wholesale prices will fall 2 cents but Friday AM look for a 4 to 6 cent jump in prices – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 38.46 UP $2.1200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.2312 UP $0.0535
NYMEX Gasoline $1.4183 UP $0.0101

NEWS
Oil futures ended sharply higher Wednesday, boosted by a smaller-than-expected weekly climb in U.S. crude stockpiles. Plans for a meeting of major oil producers next month to discuss limiting output and a dovish Federal Reserve statement, which pressured the U.S. dollar, added to gains for crude futures.

The Federal Reserve projected it would deliver just two rate increases in 2016 versus an earlier forecast for four hikes. The surprisingly dovish tone sank the U.S. dollar, lifting oil and other commodities priced in the currency. A weaker greenback can make assets priced in dollars more attractive to buyers using other currencies.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a 1.3 million-barrel rise in crude-oil supplies for the week ended March 11. That marked a fifth weekly climb in a row, but it was less than the 1.5 million-barrel increasereported by the American Petroleum Institute, and below the rise of 2.7 million barrels expected by analysts polled by Platts.

Gasoline supplies edged down by 700,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell 1.1 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. Analysts surveyed by Platts looked for a drop of 3.1 million for gasoline and fall of 1 million for distillates, which include heating oil. Hefty declines in gasoline inventories in recent weeks, along with strong demand for the fuel, had helped to boost the demand prospects for crude oil, which is used to make gasoline. EIA data also showed a weekly fall in total U.S. production of 10,000 barrels a day to 9.068 million barrels a day. Output had peaked at 9.7 million last April.

At the Cushing, Okla. storage hub, stocks climbed to about 67.5 million barrels, nearing its working capacity of about 73 million. If “producers have to pay for special storage costs and special transport charges” that could knock down the commodity price, said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities. But “the outcome is uncertain at this time.”

Meanwhile, the Qatari oil ministry said members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet with Russian energy officials and other oil producers in April to hash out an agreement to limit output. Prices had rallied in recent weeks on hopes that producers would agree to at least freeze output levels, helping to alleviate the global glut of crude. But Iran has said it was unwilling to participate in any such plan until it ramps up production to pre-sanction levels. Much of the support Wednesday “appears to be coming from a new version of an old story,” as reports indicate that oil producers will meet next month to discuss the terms of a coordinated production freeze, said Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric. The meeting is set for April 17 in Doha, Qatar, which holds the rotating presidency of OPEC this year. But “even if the producers, which reportedly account for 73% of global oil output, ‘freeze’ at January levels, we will still be looking at a production surplus of nearly 2 million barrels a day, plus whatever Iran is able to bring back online in the coming months,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of The 7:00’s Report.