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Market Close: Oct 04 Mixed

Fueling Strategy: Please partial only tonight due to Thursday AM we’ll see another 1.5 cent drop in wholesale prices – Be Safe Today

NYMEX Crude        $  49.98 DN $.4400

NY Harbor ULSD    $1.7739 UP $.0234

NYMEX Gasoline   $1.5805 UP $.0150

NEWS

Crude-oil prices extended losses into a third session on Wednesday, giving up earlier gains seen in the wake of a much-larger-than-expected weekly drop in U.S. crude supplies.

There didn’t appear to be any one particular reason for the turn lower in prices. “There are plenty of times when there is no good reason for an increase or decrease,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service. “It’s a noisy uncertain market.”

Bloomberg reported that Libya has restarted its largest oil field. Concerns had emerged over output from the country, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, after gunmen forced a shutdown of the field over the weekend. Traders also fretted over flagging compliance in an oil-producer with a key production-cut agreement, amid growing speculation that parties to the OPEC-led pact will extend it past March 2018.

November West Texas Intermediate crude shed 44 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $49.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading high as $50.67 shortly after the supply data release. Prices marked their lowest finish and first settlement below $50 since Sept. 19, according to FactSet data. December Brent crude the international benchmark, lost 20 cents, or 0.4%, to $55.80 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.

A report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday said domestic crude supplies fell by 6 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 29. That marked a second straight weekly decline and analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts had forecast a much smaller decrease of 1.5 million barrels. The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported that supplies fell by 4.1 million barrels in the latest week.

The draw in crude stocks was “driven by record crude exports on the U.S. Gulf Coast amid subdued waterborne imports, as refineries [continue to] deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey,” which hit the region in late August, said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData.

Kloza told MarketWatch that the U.S. exported 13.888 million barrels of crude last week and that he believes that the number may “soon surpass” 15 million barrels a week. “It’s the most key element of the EIA report and it should inspire a narrowing of Brent premium to WTI,” he said.

Gasoline stockpiles were up 1.6 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles fell 2.6 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey called for a climb of 1.5 million barrels for gasoline and decline of 2.4 million barrels for distillate supplies. “Distillate inventories are an ongoing bullish theme, showing another solid draw, now 16% below year-ago levels,” Smith said. “In contrast, gasoline stocks built, and are less than 4% below 2016 levels.”

Have a great day,
Loren R. Bailey
President/Founder
Fuel Manager Services, Inc.

Serving the trucking industry since 1992
Cellular: 479-790-5581
Office: 479-846-2761
Categories: Fuel News
loren: Fuel Manager Services Inc. "Serving the trucking industry since 1992" I've been in and around the trucking industry for 45-years beginning in owner operator operations at Willis Shaw Express. I bought a small trucking company that I ran for 6-years then sold and went to work for J.B. Hunt Transport in 1982. After 10-years with Hunt, I started Fuel Manager Services, Inc., we are in our 29th year of serving the American trucking companies. Our simple goal was and is to bridge the gap between the trucking companies and the fuel suppliers.