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Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed tonight – Be Safe

NYMEX Crude $ 49.62 UP $.0600
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5367 DN $.0085
NYMEX Gasoline $1.5903 DN $.0327

NEWS
Oil futures settled on a mixed note, with U.S. prices scoring slight gain but Brent ending lower, after U.S. government data revealed that crude supplies fell a third week in a row, booking the largest weekly drop of 2017.

But U.S. oil prices ended well off the session’s highest level, as petroleum product prices fell on the back of unexpected inventory increases for gasoline and distillates.

June West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 6 cents, or 0.1%, to settle at $49.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. after trading as high as $50.20. WTI appeared to modestly pare back gains just ahead of the Nymex close, which followed the unveiling of President Donald Trump’s tax-reform plan. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange, however, finished at $51.82 a barrel, down 28 cents, or 0.5%.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that domestic-crude supplies fell 3.6 million barrels for the week ended April 21—the largest weekly decline so far this year. Crude stockpiles also posted declines in each of the previous two weeks.

The American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a rise of 897,000 barrels for crude supplies, while analysts polled by S&P Global Platts forecast a fall of 1 million barrels. The headline crude number “stands in sharp contrast” to the rise reported by industry group, API, Chris Kettenmann, chief energy strategist at Macro Risk Advisors. The 1.2 million-barrel draw at the storage hub in Cushing, Okla., is “another net positive in the report.” But “the glaring net build in gasoline refined products” and rise in the lower 48 states crude production is “enough to keep us cautious on oil prices in the near term,” said Kettenmann. “We would not buy the knee-jerk rally on the print.” The EIA reported a rise of 21,000 barrels a day in lower 48 states output to total 8.722 million barrels a day.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 3.4 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles were up 2.7 million barrels last week, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey had forecast declines of 1.1 million barrels for gasoline and 1.8 million barrels for distillates, which include heating oil. “This is rather early to see such large builds,” because refinery maintenance usually continues to mid-April, “but bodes well for motorists,” said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst as GasBuddy.com.

“We may have already seen a seasonal peak in gas prices thanks to refinery utilization surging to 94.1%,” he said. “That sort of utilization number is nearly 5% higher than the same week last year and the highest April level since 96.2% in April 2001.”

Have a great day,

Loren R. Bailey, President
FUEL MANAGER SERVICES INC
“Serving the Trucking Industry Since 1992”