Fueling Strategy: Please keep tank topped tonight, Friday AM wholesale prices will jump up another 5 cents – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 46.03 UP $.7000
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4046 UP $.0251
NYMEX Gasoline $1.5980 UP $.0172

NEWS
Oil futures settled above $46 a barrel Thursday, as seven straight weeks of declines in U.S. crude production as well as weakness in the dollar helped lift prices to their best level in nearly six months.

But some analysts question whether crude will continue its positive momentum given a lack of significant change on the supply side of the market. Natural-gas prices, meanwhile, finished at their lowest level in a week as a report showed that U.S. supplies rose a bit more than the market expected. June West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 70 cents, or 1.5%, to settle at $46.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with prices scoring the highest settlement since Nov. 4. June Brent LCOM6, +1.55% on the ICE Futures exchange in London, which expires Friday, added 96 cents, or 2%, to $48.14 a barrel.

Data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday showed a 15,000 barrel-per-day decline in domestic crude production to 8.938 million barrels a day. It was down for the seventh consecutive week, but crude supplies were also up by 2 million barrels, which was a bit more than expected and marked a third weekly climb. “The drop in output pulled total U.S. production down to an 18-month low,” said analysts for The 7:00’s Report. “The fact that production is continuing to trend lower, albeit at a very moderate pace, is still bullish for energy in the near term.”

Weakness in the U.S. dollar also helped to lift dollar-denominated prices for oil. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index was down 0.7%. The yen rallied against the greenback as Japanese stocks slumped following the Bank of Japan’s decision to stand pat on interest rates. But support from the weaker dollar had its limits as many oil producers continue to pump at full capacity, with little indication of the sort of cooperation that would bring this down.

Earlier this month, major oil-producing nations failed to agree on a production freeze after Saudi Arabia appeared to walk away from any agreement that didn’t include geopolitical rival Iran. “There’s been two attempts to freeze oil output which have both driven up the price, but fundamentally non-U.S. production has increased, so freeze talks could be seen as a cheap way to move prices,” said Edward Bell, commodity analysts at Dubai-based bank Emirates NBD. Still, other analysts believed the recent price rally is justified by a physical rebalance. Demand will outstrip supply in the second half of the year, said Jason Gammel of Jefferies.