Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill only tonight, Thursday AM wholesale prices will drop 2 cents then Friday AM look for another 4 cents – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 43.58 DN $1.3200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.3817 DN $0.0412
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3615 DN $0.0150

NEWS
Oil futures settled at a nearly two-week low on Wednesday, as traders looked past an unexpected decline in a weekly tally of crude stockpiles to focus on an increase in output.

Futures tumbled a day earlier after a report from the International Energy Agency suggested that the global crude glut could last longer than expected. October West Texas Intermediate crude fell by $1.32, or 2.9%, to settle at $43.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded at $44.44 before the supply data, shot up past $45 afterward, then retreated to the session low. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost $1.25, or 2.7%, to $45.85 a barrel after similar volatile moves. The settlements for both grades of crude were the lowest since Sept. 1, FactSet data show.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration early Wednesday reported that domestic crude supplies fell by 600,000 barrels in the week ended Sept. 9. But a 3.3 million-barrel climb was expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts and the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported an increase of 1.4 million barrels. The EIA had previously reported a whopping 14.5 million-barrel drop in supplies for the week ended Sept. 2, with analysts attributing the decline to storm-related disruptions to deliveries in the Gulf of Mexico. Traders were expecting supplies to rebound from that in the latest week. The market has not seen the “bounce back” in the supply data yet, said Tyler Richey, co-editor of The 7:00’s Report. Supply should build in the coming weeks as imports continue to rebound to pre-storm levels, he said. The report also showed that total domestic crude production rose by 35,000 barrels a day to 8.493 million barrels a day. “U.S. output stats are showing signs of life,” said Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at Macro Risk Advisors. He pointed out that in the lower 48 states, production increased by 5,000 barrels a day week over week, following a 15,000 barrels-per day ramp up recorded the previous week. Given that, Kettenmann said he sees “continued risk to prices” over the second half of this year, “with U.S. output showing signs of growth.”

Petroleum-product data was also bearish with both distillate and gasoline stocks increasing “on a drop in refinery shipments, implying weaker demand,” Evans said. Gasoline supplies rose 600,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles jumped up by 4.6 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast a rise of 200,000 barrels for gasoline and an increase of 1.2 million barrels for distillates, which include heating oil. Oil prices saw pressure Tuesday after the Paris-based IEA said demand growth continued to slow in the third quarter of this year, dipping to 800,000 barrels, or 1.5 million barrels a day lower than the corresponding quarter last year.

A report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries released Monday had noted that non-cartel producers such as U.S. and Norway will up their production and global supply will outpace demand by an average of 760,000 barrels a day in 2017. “The trend in U.S. output is what really matters to estimates of when the market will rebalance in the absence of any sort of effective OPEC policy” ahead of the meeting of major oil producers later this month, Richey said. Traders are also looking to disruptions in the oil market in Libya. “The drama continues in Libya [where] former Libyan general Khalifa Haftar has taken control of 4 major Libyan oil ports,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group.