Modest drops in pricing on the way

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, November 17, 2009- There will be some retreat in petroleum pricing this coming Thursday, that’s according to George Murphy, group researcher and member of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

“There’s not a big lot there for the consumer but, at least the numbers are pointing down according to the data I have,” said Murphy. “While oil has been trading in a volatile way the past two weeks, it has always returned to the $80 dollar a barrel mark and that volatility shows itself in bullish spot pricing numbers.”

“Consumers should see stove oils drop by 1.37 cents per litre, diesel to drop by 2.0 cents a litre and gasoline should drop by 2.3 cents, that’s with all fourteen days of data in hand now. Heating oils should drop by close on what I have for stove oils, but with the jet fuel component remaining a missing factor in figuring out its trend, we can only go by the stove oil number to surmise what will happen with pricing there.

“Good economic news is helping to support pricing of oil products this past session. Signs of economic recovery are helping to spur investment in commodities over the US dollar and that helps to support pricing. In spite of this, related commodity pricing of petroleum products fell from last week as a result of builds in crude oil, gasoline and distillate supply.

“That fact, together with a drop in refiner capacity to a near historic low of close on 79 per cent, is still signifying some possible trouble for supported oil prices in the future when more refineries come back on-line after maintenance shutdowns. Look for oil prices to remain close to where they are now for the time being until the economy shows more proof of consumption of available inventory.”

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member