Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed today/tonight – Be Safe
NYMEX Crude $ 48.40 DN $.0900
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5006 DN $.0030
NYMEX Gasoline $1.5807 DN $.0194
NEWS
Oil futures extended a losing streak to a sixth session Monday as traders looked to the release of monthly reports from major industry groups this week that are expected to provide updates on OPEC crude production and global demand.
Prices held ground at their lowest settlement since late November as robust growth in U.S. oil production continued to threaten the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ plan to limit global production.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, April West Texas Intermediate crude fell 9 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $48.40 a barrel. May Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange shed 2 cents to end at $51.35 a barrel. “U.S. oil production growth shows little sign of slowing,” said Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric.
Just ahead of the Nymex settlement Monday, a report from the Energy Information Administration showed a forecast for an increase in oil output for major U.S. shale plays in April. It sees a rise of 109,00 barrels a day in April oil production, from a month earlier.
Meanwhile, U.S. energy producers added eight more active oil rigs last week, according to data Friday from oil-field service company Baker Hughes. The additions mark an eighth successive weekly climb. Also last week, the Energy Information Administration revealed that U.S. crude supplies rose for a ninth straight week.
The pickup in U.S. supplies in the market is frustrating efforts by OPEC and major non-cartel producers, such as Russia, to offset a glut of supplies in the market by cutting their own productions. The landmark agreement, signed late last year, requires participants to slash their collective production by roughly 1.8 million barrels a day in the first half of this year. “Unless there are positive signs from non-OPEC producers on production cuts or there is a significant supply outage, the relentless pursuit of the U.S. shale production will cut into OPEC’s plans,” said Stuart Ive, a client manager at OM Financial. Analysts are worried that the climb in U.S. production could lure OPEC members to abandon their output-cut pledges. Such a move could wipe out any possibility for the group to extend their production agreement beyond the original six-month period.