Good evening!
*Stove oil shows the same 3.6
cents a litre.
*Diesel shows an added 3.4
cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows an added
6/10ths of a cent a litre.
Market highlights
Canadian dollar steady
*While oil gained some strength
over the session, rising to touch close to $36 US for Brent, the Canadian
dollar rose right along with it. Averaging close to $145 last week, the dollar
gained almost five cents against the US dollar, but did not retreat with the
last couple of days trading, staying at a steady $1.40 against the greenback.
US inventories
*While US inventories of
crude oil, gasoline both increased last week, prices for distillates like
heating, stove oils and Diesel fuel all decreased with colder weather in the US
northeast and Mid-west. Inventories were nailed with a loss of 4.1 million
barrels, showing good demand for the products, and that’s where speculators
poured it on. Crude oil added an additional 8.4 million barrels while gasoline
was up another 3.5 million.
Refiner capacity dropped to 87.4% from the 90.6% recorded the week previously
due to unscheduled refinery outages.
Marine Atlantic surcharges
*Any increase to surcharges
to Marine Atlantic customers should be totally unacceptable for anyone in this
province. While not directly fuel related, any future increases to fuel
surcharges are coming, according to the federal corporation. Representation
from this province should be made to prevent any increases that supported the
former government’s policy of making the crown corporation a “self-sustaining”
entity. The policy of any government should be to connect a country, not bar
anyone from entry or exiting from that province. “Any increase in rates adds to
an artificial inflationary cost that is passed to consumers” and should be
absorbed by the federal government.
Secondly: The boats we have now were first purchased as a replacement to the
old “Caribou” and “Joseph and Clara Smallwood” boats, not only because of
twenty year replacement, but because of their fuel efficiency. While there
hasn’t been any marginal decrease in marine diesel prices, it is wrong to
assume that consumers and users of the ferry system will have to pay higher
costs due to higher prices for the fuel in the future. Already, there is a glut
in shipping worldwide, so much so that fuels, like marine diesel fuels, are
expected to retreat in the face of less consumables being transported.
Lastly: If there’s any improvement in the Canadian dollar, then consumers
should be, not only expecting, but demanding a break to fuel surcharges because
of the same lower cost of fuel acquisition. The price of fuel, right now,
between 2014 and 2016, when we were close to par and today’s dollar, both show
that we essentially are paying the same price for fuel.
Either way, absorb the cost. It’s the price of doing the country’s
business!
Watching: US inventories,
gasoline inventories, Iran production, Saudi-Russia arrangements, OPEC
production figures.
That’s it for this week!
Regards,
George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOIl
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