Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed today/tonight, Saturday AM wholesale prices will, again, fall less than 1/2 cent – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 47.97 UP $.2700
NY Harbor ULSD $1.4976 UP $.0075
NYMEX Gasoline $1.6048 UP $.0152

NEWS
Oil prices finished slightly higher Friday, but logged their third weekly loss in a month. Traders continued to weigh signs of OPEC-led cutbacks in global crude production ahead of a meeting of oil producers this weekend, against data pointing to the likelihood of further gains in U.S. output.

May West Texas Intermediate crude rose 27 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $47.97 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched intraday highs above $48 early Friday following news that Saudi Arabia said it cut oil exports to the U.S. in March by around 300,000 barrels a day. For the week, May WTI oil futures saw a loss of about 1.7% from the week-ago settlement of $48.78 for the April contract, which was the front month at the time. The May contract itself lost 2.7% for the week, according to FactSet data. May Brent crude added 24 cents, or 0.5%, to $50.80 a barrel—for a weekly loss of about 1.9%.

For the session, “oil managed to rebound not because of an uptick in buyer interest, but because of book-squaring into this weekend’s OPEC gathering,” Tyler Richey, co-editor of the Sevens Report, told Market Watch. Five representatives of the countries that signed up to the output agreement—Kuwait, Algeria, Venezuela, and non-OPEC nations Russia and Oman—will meet in Kuwait on Sunday to review the current level of compliance. Most members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are adhering to their pledges to make cuts, but data suggest not all non-OPEC producers are sticking to their quotas. “There is no question that OPEC is losing its grip on the market, but if they say something crazy while electronic markets are closed between now and Sunday night, it could cause futures to gap higher at next week’s open,” Richey said. But then there’s the U.S., which isn’t part of the agreement. “OPEC has done their part, but U.S. inventory data is still rising, keeping the lid on the oil price,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets.

Data on the number of active U.S. oil rigs from Baker Hughes released Friday revealed a rise of 21 to 652 rigs this week—suggesting the likelihood of a rise in domestic production to come. The oil rig count has climbed every week this year so far, except for one.

Oil prices have been under pressure for most of the week, as U.S. stockpiles hit a record, based on weekly data from the EIA going back to 1982.