Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped today, tonight before 23:00 CST make sure tanks are completely full of fuel, Thursday AM wholesale prices will jump UP 6 cents – Be Safe
NYMEX Crude $ 46.32 DN $1.5800
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5035 DN $0.0625
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3919 DN $0.0536
NEWS
“The crude complex has faced gale-force headwinds from a strengthening U.S. dollar, in combination with ongoing oversupply concerns highlighted in today’s weekly inventory report,” said Matt Smith, a commodity analyst at ClipperData.
December West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $46.32 a barrel, down $1.58, or 3.3%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices gave back most of the 3.8% they gained a day earlier. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $1.96, or 3.9%, to $48.58 a barrel. “Here we are, mired in the $40s, with production ticking higher and oil inventories 100 million barrels higher than this time last year,” said Smith.
Early Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a climb of 2.8 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended Oct. 30. That matched the increase reported by the American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday. Analysts polled by Platts expected supplies to be up by 2.45 million barrels. The report also showed that domestic production totaled 9.16 million barrels a day last week, up 48,000 barrels a day from a week earlier. Refinery utilization continued to edge higher to stand at 88.7% of capacity, up from 87.6%. Weakness in oil prices reflected “relentless production and [supply] surpluses,” said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities. “Until refinery utilization tops about 92%, then we are going to see continued pressure from the fundamental side of the story.” Even so, “it is notable that prices are holding up quite well under the circumstances, but the price channel is very narrow, between $44 and $50, suggesting the next few weeks could take U.S. oil prices closer to $42 or this could also breakout even higher in the coming weeks, revisiting $50 to $52 per barrel,” he said.
The EIA also reported that gasoline supplies fell by 3.3 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles declined by 1.3 million barrels last week.