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Market Close: Nov 18 Up

Fueling Strategy: Please fuel as needed tonight but plan on Thursday’s one penny increase – Be Safe
NYMEX Crude    $ 41.82 UP $.3900
NYMEX ULSD     $1.2640 UP $.0249
NYMEX Gas       $1.1629 UP $.0097
NEWS

Oil futures climbed on Wednesday to mark the highest settlement since early September after another positive step toward a COVID-19 vaccine. Prices held on to their gains even after U.S. government data showed a second-straight weekly rise in domestic crude inventories. Oil prices rose sharply after Pfizer Inc. said a final analysis of clinical trial data showed the vaccine it developed with BioNTech SE was 95% effective, noted Robert Yawger, director of energy at Mizuho Securities, in a note. The announcement came a little more than a week after the companies announced promising results and paves the way for them to ask regulators to formally approve the drug. That sets up WTI to challenge key resistance at $43.06 — a more-than-two-month high set on Nov. 11, Yawger said.

On Wednesday West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery rose 39 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $41.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, though off the day’s high of $42.46. January Brent crude,  the global benchmark, added 59 cents, or nearly 1.4%, to $44.34 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Both WTI and Brent crude prices, based on the front-month contracts, registered their highest settlements since early September, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday that U.S. crude inventories rose by 800,000 barrels for the week ended Nov. 13. That was bigger than the 100,000-barrel climb forecast by analysts polled by S&P Global Platts, but the American Petroleum Institute reported on Tuesday a much larger 4.2 million-barrel increase. The EIA data also showed crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla., storage hub edged up by 1.2 million barrels for the week.

Gasoline supply, meanwhile, rose by 2.6 million barrels, but distillate stockpiles dropped by 5.2 million barrels. The S&P Global Platts survey had shown expectations for a supply climb of 300,000 barrels for gasoline and decline of 1.8 million barrels for distillates.  The delay in guidance on production policy wasn’t a surprise” and there will be “more clarity” at the end of the month, Tariq Zahir, managing member at Tyche Capital Advisors, told Market Watch.

OPEC+ is scheduled to ease up on curbs beginning Jan. 1, but speculation has grown for a delay on worries the continued rise in COVID-19 cases will allow a surge in supplies barring further restraint. “OPEC is leaving all doors open to see how much demand does get hit in the weeks ahead,” said Zahir. “It is also worth noting Libya oil production continues to increase with no restrictions on them until they hit their previous production levels.

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.