Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill only tonight, Thursday AM wholesale prices will drop one penny – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 48.13 DN $.7200
NY Harbor ULSD $1.5048 DN $.0119
NYMEX Gasoline $1.5882 DN $.0047

NEWS
Oil futures posted a loss Wednesday as government data revealed a smaller-than-expected weekly decline in domestic stockpiles of crude. The disappointing inventory report caused prices to erase an earlier rally, as it reignited worries about oversupply.

August West Texas Intermediate crude fell by 72 cents, or 1.4%, to settle at $49.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Before the supply data, it was trading at around $50.18 and had tapped a high of $50.54 overnight. August Brent crude fell 74 cents, or 1.5%, to end at $49.88 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. Adding to pressure was a fresh poll on Thursday’s U.K. “Brexit” referendum, which showed the “leave” camp with a slight, albeit statistical insignificant, edge. The vote will help to determine Britain’s membership in the European Union. But one of the key concerns has been inventories, with U.S. Energy Information Administration early Wednesday reporting that domestic crude supplies fell by 900,000 barrels for the week ended June 17. That is significantly smaller than the 5.2 million-barrel drop reported by trade group the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday and below the decline of 1.4 million barrels expected by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts. The EIA report also showed “slight builds” in oil-product stocks so, overall, they were “a mixed bag of data,” said John Macaluso, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors. “Some supply seems to be coming back on line in Nigeria and a trend is starting to form,” he said, with Baker Hughes data having shown three weeks of rising U.S. oil-rig counts.

Despite rig counts moving higher and “some clear interest in producing more [oil] at $50 a barrel, it takes time before all of that trickles down to actual week-on-week production increases,” said Robbie Fraser, commodity analyst at Schneider Electric. Petroleum-product stockpiles also climbed. Gasoline supplies rose by 600,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles edged up by 200,000 barrels last week, according to the EIA. Total domestic crude-oil production fell by 39,000 barrels to 8.677 million barrels a day. That is down 927,000 barrels a day from the same time a year ago, EIA data showed. But large oil stockpiles have been a stumbling block for oil prices. The gradual resumption of Canada’s oil-sand production after wildfires and rising output by Iran and Iraq all point to a growth in the global glut of crude.

Oil investors are now looking ahead to the outcome of U.K. “Brexit” vote. A British exit from the EU may not have an immediate impact on oil, but could dampen appetite for riskier assets and impact demand for energy. Oil, which is priced in dollars, could also take a hit from a rising greenback, which analysts expect if the U.K. votes to leave. “The Brexit vote is definitely the most significant factor on crude’s horizon,” Fraser said. “The market continues to be relatively confident that the remain vote will prevail tomorrow. As such, a vote to stay may only offer slight momentum higher, while a surprise victory for the leave camp would be a significantly bearish factor for oil prices and global markets at large.” Macaluso said the Brexit vote’s impact on crude relies on the U.S. dollar “The dollar has been a significant headwind for oil when fundamentals go unchanged for a period of time,” he said.