Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed tonight – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 43.98 DN $.6200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4259 DN $.0285
NYMEX Gasoline $1.2879 DN $.0157

NEWS
Oil prices ended in the red on Monday with lingering concerns over a global supply glut and weakening demand pushing prices to their lowest settlement in roughly two months.

Natural-gas prices meanwhile, dropped for a fourth trading day in a row, losing nearly 10% for the session to hold ground at their lowest level since 2012.

December West Texas Intermediate crude fell by 62 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $43.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the lowest since Aug. 27, based on the most-active contracts, according to FactSet. December Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange shed 45 cents, or 0.9%, to $47.54 a barrel. Oil is “catching a drag” from the People’s Bank of China rate cuts last week, said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. The China rate cuts, “along with reports over the weekend [that] China may be backing away from 7% growth target, have spooked some traders into wondering just how badly China’s economy is struggling and how much its troubles could impact demand for resources” like crude oil, Cieszynski said.

Excess supplies have been weighing on oil prices since the summer of 2014. Oil prices have dropped by more than half since then, but the market is watching for signs of lower output. While consumers of oil have cheered cheaper prices, oil companies have suffered, resulting in a wave of cutbacks or delays of new projects, said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, a top energy watchdog.

Capital expenditure cuts are the highest in North America, but pressure is widely felt and more cuts are expected in 2016 if low prices persist, he said, during a presentation at Singapore International Energy Week. “Oil at current prices is a powerful driver to rebalance markets, but the big question is just when will equilibrium be restored.”