Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill tonight, Friday AM wholesale prices will drop 5 cents – Be Safe Today

NYMEX Crude $ 45.64 DN $.0800
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4223 UP $.0061
NYMEX Gasoline $1.4919 UP $.0006

NEWS
Oil prices ended with a minor loss Thursday, holding ground at their lowest level in a month, as a weekly decline in U.S. crude production helped to temper pressure from a surprise weekly rise in U.S. supplies. U.S. government data released Wednesday revealed a weekly decline for U.S. production in the lower 48 states for the first time this year, suggesting a slowdown in domestic output. But an unexpected rise in U.S. crude stocks last week intensified concerns that the continuing production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia aren’t effectively reducing the glut of oil that has suppressed oil prices for over two years.

July West Texas Intermediate crude fell 8 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $45.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, marking the lowest finish since May 4, according to FactSet data. WTI prices, which fell to a low of $45.20 during the session, trade more than 4% lower week to date. August Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost 20 cents, or 0.4%, to $47.86 a barrel.

“A substantial ‘volume gap’ was created through the $47 mark as bids vanished following the EIA report,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of the Sevens Report. The sell off Wednesday was “rather ‘flash-crashesque’ and a gap like that will often be filled in the following sessions.”
The EIA report released Wednesday showed that U.S. crude production in the lower 48 states fell by 20,000 barrels to 8.815 million barrels a day—down for the first time this year, according to the government data. Total output also fell by 24,000 barrels a day to 9.318 million.But the report also showed a surprise rise of 3.3 million barrels in crude inventories—the first weekly rise in nine weeks, as well as increases in gasoline and distillate stockpiles and weak demand for petroleum products.

On Thursday, July gasoline ended nearly flat at $1.492 a gallon, while July heating oil added under a penny to $1.422 a gallon. Analysts at UBS cut their WTI oil-price forecast down to $53 for 2017, from $57.50, and to $57 for 2018, from $63. For Brent, it sees an average of $56 this year, down from a previous estimate of $60, and UBS cut its 2018 forecast to $60 from $65. “Prices flirting with $50/bbl. reflect concerns over the rise in U.S. onshore activity and skepticism around quota discipline,” said analysts at UBS, lead by John Rigby. “Although we project that the currently above-normal global inventory balances will normalize by around the end of 1Q18…we are factoring in a slower normalization in crude oil prices from a lower base.”

Meanwhile, data from China, among the world’s top oil consumers, was upbeat, with the country reporting crude-oil imports of 37.2 million tons in May, up 15% from a year earlier, according to Dow Jones.

Have a great day,

Loren R. Bailey, Founder & Owner
FUEL MANAGER SERVICES INC
“Serving the Trucking Industry Since 1992”