Fueling Strategy: Please fill as needed tonight, Friday AM look for a small 1/2 drop in wholesale prices – Be Safe Today!

NYMEX Crude $ 44.32 UP $.5400
NY Harbor ULSD $1.3287 UP $.0005
NYMEX Gasoline $1.4914 UP $.0048

NEWS
Oil futures ended higher Thursday, but pulled back from sharper gains, as a wildfire in Canada’s oil-sands district and fighting in Libya threatened production in those countries.

West Texas Intermediate crude-oil futures rose 54 cents, or 1.2%, to end at $44.32 a barrel after trading as high as $46.07. Brent crude for July delivery the global oil benchmark, rose 39 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $45.01 a barrel, ending a four-day losing streak. “As more information comes in, it appears that the impact on production of the wildfires in Alberta will be significant. Producers in the Canadian province have begun shutting capacity as a response to spreading wildfire, which is now listed as ‘out of control,’” wrote analysts at JBC Energy.

A huge wildfire near Fort McMurray has grown to five times its initial size, according to Reuters, and has spread south. Further evacuations have been ordered after 88,000 people fled the city in Alberta, Canada.
The out-of-control blaze halted operations at one major oil-sands mining operationon Wednesday, while another curtailed production. Mandatory evacuations of workers have halted some operations, while camps designed to house temporary workers are being used to house the thousands of people fleeing the fires. Some 1,600 buildings have been destroyed by the fires.

The JBC analysts noted that Royal Dutch Shell PLC shut its Albian Sands mine and Suncor SU, -2.98% shut its base plant, while producers Syncrude Canada and Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd. also reduced output in the region. “Taken together this amounts to some 0.5 million [barrels a day] of capacity that is currently offline. Infrastructure is being affected too, with the 560,000 b/d Corridor pipeline shut down and movement along the 140,000 b/d Polaris pipeline significantly curtailed. On top of that, trains are not operating near Fort McMurray, according to the Canadian National Railway,” said the analysts. Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Clipper Data, said some estimates put the total amount of Canadian output knocked offline as high as 800,000 barrels a day.

Meanwhile, in Libya, tensions between rival factions stopped a Glencore cargo from loading. An oil official from Tripoli warned that the country’s oil output could drop by 120,000 barrels a day if the Benghazi-backed National Oil Corporation set up by the rival eastern government continues to block tankers, Reuters reported.

The Canadian wildfires served to push crude higher earlier during Wednesday’s session, but prices came under pressure after a report from the U.S. Department of Energy showed a larger-than-expected weekly build of crude stockpiles. Inventories increased by 2.8 million barrels for the week ended April 29 to a new weekly record.

The data also showed a surprise rise in gasoline stockpiles. Gasoline for June delivery 0.48 cent, or 0.3%, to close at $1.4914 a gallon, after finishing 1.6% lower on Wednesday.