Fueling Strategy: Please keep tanks topped tonight, Friday AM wholesale prices will jump UP 4 cents – Be Safe Tonight

NYMEX Crude $ 46.79 DN $.3300
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5436 DN $.0078
NYMEX Gasoline $1.6062 DN $.0107

NEWS
Oil pulled back Thursday, a day after a third consecutive weekly declines in U.S. crude supplies lifted prices to a six-week high. Traders weighed outcome scenarios for a crucial meeting of some of the world’s biggest producers next week.

The August contract for West Texas Intermediate crude which expired at the day’s settlement, fell 33 cents, or 0.7%, to finish at $46.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The new front-month contract, September WTI oilCLU7, -0.04% ended at $46.92, down 40 cents, or 0.9%. September Brent lost 40 cents, or 0.8%, to $49.30 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, after tapping a high of $50.19.

Futures prices for WTI and Brent finished Wednesday at the highest levels since June 6, according to FactSet data, after the Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. crude inventories declined by a larger-than-expected 4.7 million barrels for the week ended July 14. But WTI oil prices are “still not moving anywhere close to the $50 level regardless of what the crude inventory data will show us,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets UK. “The supply glut is still very much the focus,” he said. “As long as we do not see the glut fading in a meaningful way, we think the odds are stacked against the upward move for the oil price.”

Accelerating U.S. production is a major threat to the effort led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to tackle a years-old global glut of oil. Output growth from Libya and Nigeria, OPEC members which aren’t part of the group’s production-cut agreement, has also been a key concern. OPEC oil ministers are to gather for a monthly meeting to monitor producer compliance with output quotas Monday in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is expected to include some non-OPEC producers—notably Russia. Libya and Nigeria have reportedly been invited to attend as well. “We expect the major players to reiterate their commitment to the existing quotas, but not to announce tangible steps to limit production from those countries who have been increasing production,” said Eric Winograd, senior economist at AllianceBernstein. “That would leave us more or less status quo: loosely enforced quotas and market expectation that any significant rise in price would be met with additional supply,” he said in emailed comments.

Have a great day,

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