Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill only tonight, Wednesday AM wholesale prices will drop 1.5 cents – Be Safe Today!!

NYMEX Crude $ 41.85 UP $.2000
NY Harbor ULSD $1.3690 UP $.0148
NYMEX Gasoline $1.3630 UP $.0561

NEWS
U.S. oil futures tiptoed higher on Tuesday as expectations for a decline in weekly U.S. crude supplies temporarily distracted traders as they mulled the potential outcome of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting later this week. Ahead of key U.S. government data due Wednesday, some market expectations point to the likelihood that crude inventories fell for the first time in 10 weeks. But the market generally believes that OPEC won’t take any action to alleviate the glut of global crude supplies when they meet Friday, and weak manufacturing data from the U.S. and China Tuesday also raised concerns over the outlook for energy demand.

January West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $41.85 a barrel, up 20 cents, or 0.5%, on the New York Mercantile Exchange—after trading between a low of $41.17 and high of $42.23. January Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell 17 cents, or 0.4%, to $44.44 a barrel.

The American Petroleum Institute will issue its weekly petroleum supply data late Tuesday, with the Energy Information Administration’s report issued early Wednesday. A Platts survey of analysts shows expectations for a draw of 1.2 million barrels in last week’s crude stockpiles. If crude inventories fell for the week ended Nov. 27, that would be the first decline reported by the EIA since the week ended Sept. 18. But the oil market remains mostly focused on the outcome of Friday’s OPEC meeting. The summit is “lining up to be one of the most important, and potentially most hostile, gatherings among members of the global oil cartel in many years,” said analysts for The 7:00’s Report. “Tensions between OPEC members have been rising over the past year since Saudi Arabia unexpectedly announced at last November’s meeting that it was focused on the longer-term policy of defending market share rather than cutting production to support prices near term.” WTI and Brent crude prices have each dropped by close to 40% from their year-ago levels. Saudi Arabia clearly only cares “about their market share and nothing else matters for them,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. The “Saudis are taking deep budget cuts … just to maintain their market share,” and this shows that they are not interested in lowering production.

Analysts for The 7:00’s Report and UBS analyst Jon Rigby have said that OPEC may raise its oil output ceiling to 31 million barrels a day from 30 million to account for Indonesia’s return as an OPEC member. An increase to that level would also be more on par with the group’s actual production, which currently does not include Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government said Tuesday the country’s official manufacturing purchasing manager index fell to 49.6 in November — the lowest reading since August 2012. In the U.S., the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell to 48.6% last month, marking the lowest level since June 2009.