Fueling Strategy: Please wait to fuel until after midnight when Wholesale prices will drop another 2.5 tonight – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 46.21 DN $1.8000
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4229 DN $0.0549
NYMEX Gasoline $1.4653 DN $0.0361

NEWS
Oil futures settled lower for a sixth straight session Thursday—their longest losing streak since February—and marked their lowest settlement in about five weeks. Market jitters over the looming U.K. referendum on whether to leave the European Union, a so-called Brexit, fueled concerns about a potential slowdown in energy demand and a recent rise in the number of U.S. rigs drilling for oil pointed to a possible uptick in crude production levels.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, July West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.80, or 3.8%, to finish at $46.21 a barrel. That marked the lowest close since May 13. August Brent crude fell $1.78, or 3.6%, to settle at $47.19 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. “With the turmoil in global markets, we will see a pullback in confidence leading to a potential pullback in energy demand,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group.

Global stocks have sold off in recent days amid fears that a British vote to exit the European Union, will disrupt financial markets and the economy. The situation was further complicated Thursday after an attacker killed a lawmaker from the U.K.’s main opposition Labor Party, prompting a temporary suspension of campaigning activities for the referendum. The decline for oil is “exacerbated by stock market weakness related to Brexit fears, since oil prices are also correlated to the stock market,” said Jay Hatfield, co-founder and president of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, before the news of the shooting and campaign suspension.

On Thursday, equities in Europe and Asia dropped. U.S. stocks were mixed. “The increased chances of a Brexit could be a catalyst for weak market fundamentals feeding through into outright price declines,” analysts at JBC Energy said in an early Thursday note to clients. The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday decided to keep interest rates steady, which initially weakened the U.S. dollar. A weaker dollar is usually welcome news for commodity prices, which are priced in the currency. On Thursday, the ICE U.S. Dollar Index as trading nearly flat, but dropped versus the Japanese yen after the Bank of Japan left interest unchanged.

The dovish Fed action can also be interpreted as a sign that the U.S. central bank is becoming more cautious about economic growth. “Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged (while turning dovish on future hikes) fed into growing fears over the global economy,” JBC said. Hatfield, who’s also a portfolio manager of the InfraCap MLP exchange-traded fund forecast oil prices to trade in the $45-55 range for the rest of the year, with $50 being a key inflection and resistance point. “We do believe that when oil prices are above $50, there are some areas in the U.S. that are economic to drill, and we have seen a number of equity offerings from [exploration and production] companies to fund incremental drilling, including WPX Energy Inc. and Synergy Resources Corp. he said. “This incremental drilling should help keep oil contained below $55 for the balance of 2016,” said Hatfield. Longer term, he’s “bullish on prices rising to the area of $60-70 as offshore production that is uneconomic starts to decline in 2017.”