Up and down week for oil

Distillate prices still work upwards

Media release

Conception Bay south, NL, June 14,2011- Consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador will see some slight changes to fuel prices this week when the Public Utilities Board adjusts prices this Thursday morning. That's from George Murphy, group researcher with the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

" There's not much change at all on the gasoline front. The number rings in close to zero, but what is readily apparent is the price of distillate fuels like heating, stove oils and diesel that are showing increases to prices again. I think it's alarming to see, especially in a season when traditionally, we see heating oil prices drop," Murphy said.

"It's disturbing to see consumers of heating and stove oils take a pounding in the wallet with prices still elevated close to the dollar a litre mark."

Here are the projected increases for Thursday:

• Heating and stove oils are up again by 1.69 cents a litre.
• Diesel is showing up again as well by 1.8 cents a litre, and...
• Gasoline shows an added 3/10ths of a cent.

Some market notes

• The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a drop in crude oil inventories. The oil industry organisation represents oil producers and retailer/refiners in the United States also reported a gain in US inventories of gasoline, helping to keep prices steady this week.
• Gasoline demand also dropped in the US to average 9.16 million barrels of consumption per day, down 2.8% from the same period last year, the single biggest drop in demand recorded in four months.
• Diesel consumption in China is up. Way up, indicating a busy economy, in spite of inflation which is fast becoming a factor in prices of commodity goods coming from the Asian country. The Chinese government is responding by ordering banks to tighten the money supply, trying to slow the flow of cash in the markets there. Another way they have done that is by raising interest rates.
• Back again, south of the border where oil rebounded today on "less than expected" bad news on the retail front. News there indicated a modest drop in retail sales of just .2%, less than what economists expected. It was a market indicator that consumers are adjusting to higher energy prices and are spending in other areas as they adjust habits.

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices