Fueling Strategy: Keep tanks topped tonight, Wholesale prices are going to shoot UP 5.5 cents tonight at midnight then fall back down almost 2 cents Sunday AM – Fill’em Up!! – Be Safe Today
NYMEX Crude $ 39.97 DN $1.1100
NY Harbor ULSD $1.3424 DN $0.0162
NYMEX Gasoline $1.2702 DN $0.0261
NEWS
Oil futures fell sharply Friday, with the U.S. benchmark settling below $40 a barrel after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to keep pumping crude at current production levels despite a global glut.
Cartel members, meeting in Vienna, made no mention of a production target in their final communiqué. OPEC President Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu told reporters that members saw no need to mention a hard figure but that there had been agreement to maintain a ceiling that reflects “current actual production.” While OPEC previously had a production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, members have been producing closer to 31.5 million barrels a day, according to market estimates.
January Brent crude the global oil benchmark, dropped 84 cents, or 1.9%, to close at $43 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. It was down 4.2% for the week. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, January West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.11, or 2.7%, to finish at $39.97 a barrel, after touching a $39.60 low. The contract saw a weekly decline of 4.2%. Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, said the danger now is that OPEC members will continue to boost production on their own in a bid to maintain market share. “It is not about maintaining their profit for the time being,” Aslam told Market Watch. “The most important elements are maintaining the market share and even more significant is keeping the united front.”
In the run-up to the meeting, there was speculation the cartel would at least debate a production cut, though officials and analysts had largely played down talk of a move. Most market participants had expected OPEC to stick to its ceiling of 30 million barrels a day. That number, though, is largely symbolic as the organization has been overshooting it for months. In September, OPEC produced 31.57 million barrels a day, according to its own data. Analysts said the decision shows OPEC remains determined to continue pumping aggressively, putting pressure on U.S. shale producers and other sources of non-OPEC production in what amounts to a price war. In the past, OPEC—which pumps about four out of 10 barrels of oil consumed each day around the globe—has throttled back on output to support prices. But in a break from that strategy, OPEC decided to keep its output ceiling unchanged at a meeting last year, despite a plunge in oil prices, in a bid to defend—and extend—its share of the oil market.
Data from Baker Hughes showed the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rigs fell by 10 to 545 as of Friday. They’re down by 1,030 compared with last year.