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Market Close: Sep 10 Up

Fueling Strategy: Please partial fill tonight, Friday AM wholesale prices will drop 5.5 cents – Be Safe Today!
NYMEX Crude            $  45.92 UP $1.7790
NY Harbor ULSD        $1.5747 UP $0.0361
NYMEX Gasoline        $1.3936 UP $0.0339
NEWS

Oil futures on Thursday recouped losses from a day earlier as expectations for further declines in U.S. production helped offset a bigger-than-expected weekly increase in domestic crude supplies. Natural-gas prices also finished higher after separate data showed an increase in natural-gas inventories that was below market expectations. October West Texas Intermediate crude  tacked on $1.77, or 4%, to settle at $45.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after dropping $1.79, or 3.9%, a day earlier. Oil prices had pared some of their earlier gains in the wake of the supply data, before pushing toward session highs again.

Brent crude rose $1.31, or 2.8%, to $48.89 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange. Nymex oil participated in a “broad-based risk-on rally, despite the negative numbers” released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration Thursday, said Tim Evans, chief market strategist at Long Leaf Trading Group. U.S. stocks were higher in volatile trading when Nymex prices settled. “We are seeing commodity sectors react more sensitively to the sentiment of the investment community than the internal fundamentals of a variety of different markets, including crude oil,” Evans said.

On Thursday, the EIA reported an increase of 2.6 million barrels in crude supplies for the week ended Sept. 4. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a crude-stock climb of 300,000 barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute Wednesday said supplies gained by 2.1 million barrels, according to sources. “The build in oil inventories was surprising given a drop off in U.S. production,” said John Macaluso, an analyst at Tyche Capital Advisors. But “we do expect a run of continuous [crude-supply] builds in the weeks to come as refineries enter annual maintenance season,” he said. “A big cut in refinery utilization by 1.9% is further indication that [refinery maintenance may] have started and builds will likely get even bigger.” Still, total weekly domestic oil production edged down by 83,000 barrels to 9.14 million barrels a day, EIA report showed. In a separate report issued Wednesday, the EIA said U.S. oil production fell to a nearly one-year low in August and was likely to keep falling well into 2016. But the government agency also lowered its 2015 and 2016 price estimates for WTI and Brent crude.

Meanwhile, gasoline supplies rose 400,000 barrels while distillate stockpiles climbed by one million barrels last week, according to the EIA’s petroleum inventory data. On Nymex, October gasoline settled up 3.4 cents, or 2.5%, at $1.394 a gallon, while October heating oil tacked on 3.6 cents, or 2.4%, to $1.575 a gallon.

Meanwhile, natural-gas prices added to earlier gains after the EIA reported that supplies of the commodity rose by 68 billion cubic feet for the week ended Sept. 4. Analysts polled by Platts forecast a climb of between 72 billion cubic feet and 76 billion cubic feet.

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.