Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill tonight, Friday AM wholesale prices will drop 1/2 cent – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 47.33 UP $.5600
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5094 UP $.0131
NYMEX Gasoline $1.5114 UP $.0018

NEWS
Natural-gas futures settled higher Thursday, to tally a fourth straight win, buoyed by a smaller-than-expected weekly climb in U.S. supplies as warmer weather lifted domestic demand prospects for the fuel. Crude-oil futures, meanwhile, recouped some of the 2.8% loss they suffered a day earlier in the wake of a larger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories.

Meanwhile, crude-oil futures Thursday finished higher, shrinking their week-to-date decline to roughly 3.4%. October West Texas Intermediate crude added 56 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $47.33 a barrel on Nymex. October Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange finished up 62 cents, or 1.3%, to $49.67 a barrel. Traders bought dollar-denominated oil “as the U.S. dollar index didn’t get much of a bounce off bullish weekly jobless claims and July durable goods” released early Thursday, said Darin Newsom, DTN senior analyst. The markets were also waiting for clues on the Federal Reserve’s plan for interest rates from Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s speech Friday at the Jackson Hole, Wyo. symposium.

Shortly before Thursday’s Nymex settlement, WTI oil briefly pared its gains as Reuters reported that Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told the news agency in an interview that he doesn’t believe any significant intervention in the oil market is necessary. The market likely believes that this is “just pre-negotiation talk and will allow for some latitude,” said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group. Al-Falih’s comments come ahead of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ informal meeting set for late September to discuss ways to stabilize the market.

Oil prices fell Wednesday to a roughly one-week low after the EIA reported that domestic crude supplies rose by a larger-than-expected 2.5 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 19. Gasoline inventories were also flat for the week, contrary to expectations for a decline.