Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill only tonight, Saturday AM wholesale prices will drop 6 cents – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 45.41 UP $.2700
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4123 UP $.0017
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3708 UP $.0077

NEWS
Oil futures finished Friday narrowly higher after an upbeat U.S. jobs report, but crude suffered a weekly loss of more than 7% — its largest since early February.

Traders were wary of the market’s slow progress toward drawing down the crude-supply surplus, depressing prices. But energy-demand optimism sparked by a jump in June payrolls offered price support. The oil market had “trouble gaining traction despite a strong U.S. employment report that the financial markets seem to be treating as a ‘Goldilocks’ number: just right to reassure the equity market that U.S. economic growth is steady but without putting the Fed on a path to boost interest rates,” said Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citi Futures and OTC Clearing.

August West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 27 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $45.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. For the week, prices lost 7.3% for the largest weekly percentage loss since the week ended Feb. 5, according to FactSet. September Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange added 36 cents, or 0.8%, to $46.76 a barrel. For the week, it was down about 7%. “Trouble was brewing in the oil trade [with] poor support for prices in much of the session,” said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities, referencing Thursday’s trading, when WTI crude futures ended down 4.8% and Brent lost 4.9% to settle at two-month lows. “Petroleum product volumes are too high, and our exports cannot grow sufficiently, or fast enough, to adjust this,” Hastings said. “Throw in some evidence of a few more rigs, then the story turns to more U.S. onshore production, not less.”

Baker Hughes Inc. on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. oil rigs rose by 10 to 351 in the latest week. That’s the fifth weekly climb in the past six weeks. “Lower petroleum prices and refiner margin pressures are pushing back upon crude oil, infecting crude oil itself from multiple other directions,” said Hastings. “There is hope for a better situation in 2017, but this is only the middle of 2016. West Texas Intermediate prices could revisit the lower $40s before some stability returns.”

On Thursday, data from the Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. crude and gasoline supplies fell less than expected for the week ended July 1. Adding to press on oil is the ample supply of gasoline still sloshing around in the world, despite a growth in passenger vehicle sales and seasonal high demand amid the U.S. summer-driving season. Robust gasoline supplies are making it less profitable for refiners to produce more gasoline, and refinery utilization unexpectedly fell last week. If refiners continue to run at lower rates and buy less crude oil, that could worsen the oversupply of crude, analysts say.

WTI oil prices had touched highs near $46 early Friday after data showed that U.S. hiring in June climbed by 287,000 new jobs—the strongest gains of the year. “Since the employment numbers continue to improve, the demand for oil should not be impacted by a potential slowdown in the economy,” said Mark Watkins, regional investment manager at U.S. Bank Private Client Group at U.S. Bank. “On the other hand, supply will have a larger impact on the price of oil as short-term disruptions continue to come back online,” he said. “We expect that oil should continue to flirt with the $50-per-barrel level.”