Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped tonight, Wednesday AM wholesale prices will go UP 2 cents – Be Safe Today

NYMEX Crude $ 53.40 UP $.3200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.6506 UP $.0033
NYMEX Gasoline $1.7577 DN $.0004

NEWS
Oil futures finished higher Tuesday, stretching their streak of gains to a sixth session as prices rebounded on talk of a possible extension to the OPEC-led production cut agreement.

Prices had spent much of the session trading lower, as investors awaited this week’s updates on U.S. crude-supply levels, before inching higher after The Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia told officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries that it wants to extend the group’s agreement to cut crude production for another six months when OPEC meets in May. May West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 32 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $53.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange tacked on 25 cents, or 0.5%, to $56.23 a barrel.

The Saudi news was behind the “small bid” higher for prices,” said Tariq Zahir, a managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors.

But the coming U.S. supply data from the Energy Information Administration are likely to be bearish, “especially with the expected increases in U.S. production which, in our opinion, will keep on being revised upward as the months go on,” he said.

In its short-term energy outlook report Tuesday, the EIA forecast record U.S. crude production for 2018 and cut its price outlook for WTI and Brent for this year and next. Still, prices for both WTI and Brent have now tallied gains for six sessions in a row—the longest winning streak of the year, so far. Concerns about global-crude output grew after the U.S. airstrike on Syria late last week and the reported shutdown of Libya’s Sharara oil field over the weekend after an unknown group blocked a pipeline. Adding to geopolitical worries, North Korea’s foreign ministry warned early Tuesday local time that it was ready for “war” if the U.S. makes further military moves like the one seen Sunday, when it sent a Navy strike group to the region.

Tuesday’s price moves come ahead of a weekly petroleum-stockpile report from industry trade group the American Petroleum Institute due late Tuesday. The EIA will reveal its own data early Wednesday.

Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts forecast EIA data to show an increase of 125,000 barrels in last week’s crude inventories. They also expect to see a decline of 1.8 million barrels for gasoline stockpiles and a fall of 1.3 million for distillate supplies, which include heating oil.