Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hi to all,

Not much change expected in the numbers this week. Keep in mind my margin for error is just three tenths of a cent, so, here’s what I have for this week:

· Heating and stove oils are down by 7/100ths of a cent.

· Diesel is down by 1/10th of a cent, and…

· Gasoline shows a drop of 8/10ths of a cent on the way.

That’s it for me this week. It’s been another late night in the House. As the estimates committees are over-with, I may even have some time to look at oil prices in the coming days!

I’ll be in touch again, no doubt!

Thanks for your patience!

Regards,

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyNDP

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Numbers for this week: All down

Hi to all,

Here’s what I have for price changes for this week;

· Heating and stove oils down by 1.37/Litre.

· Diesel down by 2.0/litre, and…

· Gasoline to drop by 1.7/Litre.

Market highlights

· Still a lot of questions surrounding Greece and their ability to form a majority government. It’s widely believed that the instability there is undermining both consumer confidence and the strength of the Euro.

· Libya output has finally reached over 1.6 million barrels a day of production, spurring optimism in ongoing recovery of exports from the North African country.

· Yukiya Amano, the UN’s head of the International Atomic Energy Agency will be making a special visit to Iran to discuss the ongoing nuclear dispute. It’s a rare move that may be signaling significant moves on the part of Iran. It’s been four years since speculation swirled over Iran’s possibility of manufacturing of nuclear weaponry.

· OPEC has pumped over 1.6 million barrels a day over its self-imposed output targets for April month, increasing OPEC group output to over 31.6 million barrels per day.

That’s it for now!

Regards,

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyNDP

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Gas plays up for the long weekend
Distillates to drop

It was a late night in the House of assembly, so I'm going to keep this one short!

Well, you just knew it was going to happen, and that all good things must come to pass. memorial day weekend in the US and the Victoria day weekend, or May two-four, as we call it, is here.

Here's what I have for this week:
  • Heating and stove oils to drop by 1.43 cents a litre.
  • Diesel also is showing down by 1.6 cents a litre, and...
  • Gasoline shows an added 2.2 cents a litre.

Somehow, you just knew...

Regards,


George


Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Consumers will catch a break!
Heating, Diesel and Gas all down

Late night in the House, so I’ll keep this short and sweet!

Here’s what I have for Thursday morning, with all data in for the week:

· Heating and stove oils show a drop of 3.14 cents/Litre on the way.

· Diesel is down by 3.6 cents/Litre, and…

· Gasoline shows a drop of 4.1 cents/Litre coming down the pipes.

Some market highlights

· West Texas Intermediate is down close on $8.00US a barrel this week.

· Brent crude closes at $112.48 US a barrel.

· American Petroleum Institute measure of crude oil inventories shows an increase for the past week of an added 7.8 million barrels of stock, the highest crude inventory since 1990. There’s plenty of crude and no one using it. These numbers will be weighed against the US Energy Information Administration’s report on inventories tomorrow (Wednesday).

· All this started off on Friday when a weak US jobs growth forecast was said to be a possible sign of further slowing in the US economy.

That’s it from me for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy

Group researcher/member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyNDP


Sunday, May 06, 2012

Coming Down the Pipeline...

Just a short note:

By the look of things in the markets, consumers will see a drop to all prices when the PUB adjusts prices this coming Thursday. Between the France and Greek elections, it seems that countries like Norway have begun to dump Greek and Ireland bonds and that has suddenly led to a whole new lot of uncertainty in the markets in the last couple of hours.

What started it all? Weak US jobs numbers out late Friday.

West Texas intermediate has dropped to $96.18 a barrel, while Brent has dropped to $111.17 US a barrel as of 9:30PM Newfoundland and Labrador time Sunday.

Here’s what I have so far, keeping in mind that there are still two business days yet to attain for final data:

· Heating and stove oils are down by 2.76/Litre.

· Diesel is down by 3.2/litre, and…

· Gasoline is down by 4.2 cents a litre.

If trading sends oil down further, consumers can expect these numbers to also be down further. In the meantime, I don’t expect a huge “recovery” based on the weekend economic news! Looks like there’s a “market correction” underway.

I’ll be in touch with all on this one…

Regards,

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyNDP

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Gasoline numbers down slightly

Conception Bay South, NL, May 1, 2012- Numbers are down for gasoline again this week, but not by much. Consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador will find out the exact figures when the Public Utilities Board adjusts numbers this coming Thursday morning.

"Gasoline numbers are down, but just by a cent a litre," Murphy said, adding that there's still some instability in the markets from the past week's activity."Even though oil is up, there's a reluctance in the gas numbers that still is keeping away traders for the time-being. Even though inventories are showing draws against available inventories, production in the US northeast still has not returned fully. Therefore, when that refiner capacity returns to the northeast US markets, there is, I believe, some fear amongst traders that gasoline inventories will actually start to show close to a neutral position,or show slight increases, indicative of slowing consumer demand during the run-up to the summer driving season. Hopefully, this will be a good sign of what consumers can expect for the summer as we get closer to the summer pricing prediction that should come in by the Victoria Day holiday."

Heating and stove oils show a modest 67/100ths of a cent increase, while diesel fuels are predicted to increase also by 1.1 cents a litre. "I still don't see a solid start downwards for numbers in the distillate fuels, and that concerns me. If we're going to see any kind of pricing relief from high heating and stove oil costs this coming winter, the numbers are going to have to start downwards sooner rather than later. The damage that high home energy costs are doing to family budgets the last few years must be incredible."

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices
Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyNDP