Price changes for Thursday, June 26th, 2014

Hi to all,

Here's what I have for this Thursday's price changes:

Heating and stove oils add 83/100ths of a cent a litre.
Diesel fuel adds 1.7 cents a litre, and...
Gasoline adds a cent a litre.

The Canadian dollar picked up a penny against the US dollar over the past week on an increase in refined commodity prices. Oil stayed relatively steady over the past week on Iraq violence, peaking at just over $107 WTI before retreating slightly. There is still considerable worry over whether militants in Iraq will manage to take Baghdad. The concern here is a complete collapse of the present government if they do. The areas to the immediate southeast of Baghdad are responsible for about 75 percent of Iraqi exports and production.

Even then, Iraqi production and exports represents just 10% of OPEC production, and even smaller worldwide. Other areas worldwide have been showing increasing production, probably enough to offset any loss of product directly to the markets. But will it be enough to satisfy the market speculators?

I'll continue to keep an eye to things, supplying any updates or radical changes to spot pricing if necessary.

That's it for now!

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyMHA 

Numbers still show prices to increase on Thursday...

Feel free to share this one around!

Update for everyone after today's market activity, all hinging on Iraq of course!

Here's what I have with six days data in:

Heating and stove oils are up by 2.32 cents a litre.
Diesel is up by 2.7 cents a litre.
Gasoline is up by 2.2 cents a litre.

I think an important thing to note here is that the markets were a little skittish about the weakness of the economic recovery, and they have good reason to be. If you look at your own disposable income, you know yourself that things are tight and have been for a while.

if there is a shut-down of Iraqi production, and oil climbs higher, traders and speculators know it's going to cause huge economic problems for everyone. That's part reason why oil prices haven't gone completely off the deep end!

I'll have the last update with final numbers tomorrow night, but what you see here now is what is most likely to occur this week in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It's situations like this in the markets that has me thanking fuel price regulation again. At least we're not getting screwed like they have been in other major centers in the country who's prices are up on "panic" alone!

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyMHA

Iraq violence continues: Update on the markets

A fuel price update....

Watching the markets closely with all the violence in Iraq (what else is new?) and, while the numbers are up, they're not up as much as what everyone was expecting at this point.

Here's what I have so far with five days data heading into next week's price changes:

Heating and stove oils add 2.2 cents a litre.
Diesel adds 2.5 cents a litre, and...
Gasoline adds 2.1 cents a litre.

The markets look like they're more concerned about consumer demand moreso than any possible supply disruption.

I'll update again Monday!

Regards,

George Murphy, MHA, St. John's East
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyMHA

Price changes for Thursday, June 12, 2014

Hi to all!

Don't expect too much in the way of price changes this time around as the markets still search for consumer demand to increase. With consumers still not ready to buy at these high prices, it's understandable to see why prices ate steady again this week.

Here's what I have:

Heating, stove oils and Diesel fuel to drop by just 2/10ths of a cent a litre.
Gasoline to drop by just 6/10ths of a cent a litre.

The Canadian dollar remains relatively steady against the US Greenback, with refiner capacity up another two percentage points to sit at just over 90 per cent. A drawdown on inventory of crude oil was offset somewhat by gains in both gasoline and distillate inventories.

Looks like a "what you see is what you're going to get" scenario shaping up for the rest of the summer. Another week or so, and we'll enter the August buying period where we'll see some demand for gasoline drop off slightly as the summer driving season comes to a close. If they're going to try and make a profit off any speculation, then the speculators will try again soon. Time is running out for this summer for them!

That's it again for this week!

My regards to all!

George Murphy, MHA, St. John's East
Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyMHA