Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed tonight, Saturday & Sunday – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 45.54 UP $.8000
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5199 UP $.0001
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3414 DN $.0254

NEWS
Oil futures finished higher on Friday, buoyed by data showing a weekly drop in the number of active U.S. drilling rigs to their lowest level in more than 5 years. Prices had been trading lower before the rig data from Baker Hughes Inc. Earlier, a slowdown in U.S. job creation last month hinted at the potential for weaker energy demand, pushing oil lower. November West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $45.54 a barrel, up 80 cents, or 1.8%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier hitting lows under $44. For the week, the contract was still down around 0.4%.

November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange tacked on 44 cents, or 0.9%, to $48.13 a barrel, but saw a weekly loss of about 1%. Baker Hughes said Friday that the active oil-rig count fell by 26 to 614 as of Friday. The total active rig count, which includes natural gas, fell 29 rigs to 809.
“This is a big drop,” said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics. “This is the lowest overall rig count since May 2002 and is definitely bullish,” he said. “With bankers re-determining credit limits at the end of the quarter, this is an indicator of limited capital for drilling this quarter.”

Reports earlier Friday showed that the number of new U.S. jobs created in September slowed sharply for the second straight month and U.S. factory orders dropped 1.7% in August. “Oil markets have to be concerned that incremental demand growth could taper off, leaving the trade with a flat demand signal going into mid-2016, instead of the demand growth,” said Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities, before the rig-count data. The jobs report had also triggered “a helpful decline in the U.S. dollar ” which provided support to oil prices, said Hastings. “Throw in the idea that a Fed funds hike is way off into the future, and we could see additional declines in the [dollar].”

Oil prices settled lower in the previous session, largely on account of weaker U.S. and European manufacturing data. Some analysts have said that Hurricane Joaquin has the potential to disrupt oil refinery activity on the East Coast, which could contributed to higher crude supplies and lower prices. But the National Hurricane Center said Friday that the threat of a direct hit to the East Coast is easing. Late Thursday, Platts reported that China’s apparent oil demand rose 10.2% to average 11.19 million barrels a day in August compared with a year earlier.