Fuel Strategy: Please fill as needed today/tonight, Tuesday keep tanks topped AM/PM – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 53.08 UP $.8400
NY Harbor ULSD $1.6473 UP $.0189
NYMEX Gasoline $1.7581 UP $.0119

NEWS
Oil futures settled higher Monday, stretching their wining streak to a fifth consecutive session, as the shutdown of Libya’s largest oil field and uncertainty in the Middle East, following the U.S. airstrike on Syria, raised concerns over disruptions to global crude supplies.

Geopolitics remained front and center, not just in the Middle East. Libya’s Sharara oil field was shut down on Sunday after an unknown group blocked a pipeline—just a week after a previous shutdown, according to Reuters. And in the Pacific, analysts said the U.S. Navy canceled planned port calls to Australia for the USS Carl Vinson carrier group, which will instead be sent to the Korean Peninsula in the wake of recent missile tests by North Korea. “There is no doubt that oil is rising purely on geopolitical concerns,” said Phin Ziebell, an economist at National Australia Bank. He cited several bearish factors such as 12 straight weeks of rising U.S. oil-rig counts that should have brought oil prices lower had current tensions not existed.

Instead, the U.S. benchmark has now posted gains in nine of the past 10 sessions.

May West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 84 cents, or 1.6%, to settle at $53.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the highest settlement since March 7, according to data from Dow Jones. June Brent crudeLCOM7, +1.38% on London’s ICE Futures exchange added 74 cents, or 1.3%, to $55.98 a barrel. “News flows are helping support strength in energy futures for the near term,” Tyler Richey, co-editor of the Sevens Report, told Market Watch.

Prices rose about 3% last week, with a portion of the gains the result of the U.S. missile launch against Syria. While Syria is a marginal oil producer, the U.S. move has stoked concerns of possible retaliation from major oil producers Iran and Russia—which both have renewed their support to stand by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Despite the tensions, however, “the longer-term outlook for oil continues to favor the bears as U.S. oil output continues to climb much faster than expected, which is both offsetting efforts by global producers who cut production in January as well as damaging OPEC member sentiment as they once again forfeit market share to U.S. shale producers,” said Richey.