Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Price changes for Thursday, August 25, 2016

Hi to all,

As predicted, there's not much change in the numbers.

All are up.

Here's what I have for this week's price changes:
...
*Heating and stove oils to increase by 3.9 cents a litre.
*Diesel fuel to increase by 3.8 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows an added 4.8 cents a litre at the pumps.

Market highlights

Iran to join talks in Algeria
*In a surprise to the markets today, Iran is said to have written a letter to fellow OPEC members letting them know that they will join talks with other OPEC and non-OPEC members in the possibility of instituting a production freeze.
     World oil producers are still trying to deal with an excess of supply in the markets, and it is widely believed that a freeze in worldwide oil production will help alleviate the present drop in prices.
The news today help take oil prices out of negative territory and oil ended with a gain on the day.

Oil inventories lower
Last week's inventory news out of the US was for some a surprise as buth oil and gas supplies took a dip last week all against market expectations.
    Gasoline inventories took a drop of 2.7 million barrels in last week's report with oil also down by 2.6 million barrels.

I'll leave it at that for this week.

Regards to all,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

That was the release I sent out a little while ago...

The news out of Iran today was a little surprising, I will admit.

In case you missed it, the Iranians are now talking about attending the "freeze" meeting set for Algeria in late September...

Curious though is the effect of making an announcement like that today a full month ahead of the scheduled meeting. Perhaps the Iranians now know what kind of influence the now hold in the markets, but even more curious knowing that they have been taking on the Saudi's at their own game with discounting to their favorite Asian customers almost a side-act.

Be that as it may, Iraq still enters a new realm in the markets with their announcement the other day that they have reached an export deal with the Kurds in the north where exports have been shut in from the Kirkuk fields. With oil down yesterday on the immediate addition of upwards of 200,000 barrels a day in output, it was no surprise to see Iran respond with their own "influence" shot to gain back some attention again.

But keep looking south, but not just south...

With rising oil, US rig counts have again increased for the tenth week out of eleven measured. The fact that oil is still supported close to $50 Brent and $48 WTI, tells me to expect another week of a double-digit increase in rig counts in the next week or two. Resiliency is showing itself in the US and may turn out to be the factor that shuts down any increase (or prospects of) in the price of a barrel of oil.

Regards,

George 

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