Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Price changes for Thursday, March 24, 2016

Hi to all,

Here's what I have for this week's price changes. Remember the winter blending that may affect heating and diesel fuel prices.

*Heating and stove oils show an added 7/10ths of a cent per litre....
*Diesel fuel shows an added 4/10ths of a cent, and...
*Gasoline shows an added 9/10ths of a cent per litre.


Market highlights

World oil production meeting?
OPEC and non-OPEC producers will meet in Doha, Qatar this coming April 17th to discuss future actions geared towards limiting production levels. It's been a bone of contention between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Russia that all producers should take a role in cutting oil production to bring world oil supplies back into balance.
Iran however, has no intentions of discussing the possibility of limiting its own production levels until production reaches four million barrels a day from their present level of 3.1 million barrels a day.

Closely watching gasoline
With futures prices sharply up over the past three weeks, I'm keeping a close eye to spot prices that are being affected as a result. Spot prices are present-day reads, while futures prices are speculators bets thirty to forty five days down the road. Futures prices have been rising ahead of the summer driving season that is usually marked by the US Memorial Day holiday weekend in May. The run-up to the season usually starts in March, and is well on pace by speculators to add some increases at the pump. Right now, futures prices are running around $1.50 a US gallon, while the actual spot for today has hit $1.31 a US gallon. Factors that could affect the spot outcome could be factors like inventory builds/draws, refinery capacity levels, or even demand.

I'll keep you all informed here, if I notice anything substantial on the way!

That's it for this week!

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

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