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Market Close: Feb 18 Down

Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped today/tonight, Friday prices will go up another 2 cents – Be Safe
NYMEX Crude    $ 60.52 DN $.6400
NYMEX ULSD     $1.8060 DN $.0178
NYMEX Gas       $1.7943 DN $.0162
NEWS
Oil prices fell more than 1% on Thursday despite a sharp drop in U.S. crude inventories, as market participants took profits following days of buying spurred by a cold snap in the largest U.S. energy-producing state.

Brent Crude fell 0.64% to settle at $63.93 per barrel. During the session it rose as high as $65.52, its highest since January 2020. WTI Crude futures slid 1.01% to settle at $60.52 a barrel, after earlier reaching $62.26, the highest since January 2020. Brent had gained for four straight sessions before Thursday, while WTI had risen for three. “The market probably got a little bit ahead of itself,” said Phil Flynn, a senior analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. “But make no mistake, this selloff in oil doesn’t solve the problems. The problems are going to persist.”

Though some Texas households had power restored on Thursday, the state entered its sixth day of a cold freeze. It has grappled with refining outages and oil and gas shut-ins that rippled beyond its border into Mexico. The weather has shut in about one-fifth of the nation’s refining capacity and closed oil and natural gas production across the state. “The temporary outage will help to accelerate U.S. oil inventories down towards the five-year average quicker than expected,” SEB chief commodities analyst Bjarne Schieldrop said.

Prices fell despite a sharp drop in U.S. oil inventories. Crude stockpiles fell by 7.3 million barrels in the week to Feb. 12, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday, compared with analysts’ expectations for an decrease of 2.4 million barrels. Crude exports rose to 3.9 million barrels per day, the highest since March, EIA said. “The big nugget was the big jump in exports of crude oil,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York. “We’ll have to see what happens with that next week weather in Texas, but I have been looking for a pick up there for a while.”

Oil’s rally in recent months has also been supported by a tightening of global supplies, due largely to production cuts from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers in the OPEC+ grouping, which includes Russia. OPEC+ sources told Reuters the group’s producers are likely to ease curbs on supply after April given the recovery in prices.

Have a Great Day,
Loren R Bailey, President
Fuel Manager Services Inc.
“Serving the trucking industry since 1992”
Office: 479-846-2761
Cell: 479-790-5581
www.FuelManagerServices.com
www.owneroperatoradvisoryservice.com
“To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.”
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.