Price changes for Thursday, June 29, 2017

Hi to all,

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

*Heating and stove oils show a drop of 1.1 cents a litre.

*Diesel fuel shows a drop of 1.5 cents a litre, and...

*Gasoline shows no change this week.

Markets steady. Waiting for Wednesday inventory data

“Consumers will not see any change to gasoline prices this week as the markets await inventory data from the U.S Energy Information Administration for any sign of rising or falling demand”. That word comes from George Murphy, group researcher with the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices. ”However, being the non-demand season for distillates like heating, stove oil and diesel, we’ll see some further retreat in prices”.

“The markets are searching for any reason for optimism amongst signs that demand still hasn’t shown any appreciable growth in demand for gasoline, and that sentiment continues as some are expressing ongoing concerns over the world glut of oil. There’s lots to go around.

“In what must be a surprise to most, the US EIA has reported three weeks of gasoline inventory building in the middle of the demand season for that fuel, and smack in one of the world’s most bustling economies, and with the final mystery of why demand hasn’t risen its head this summer season. At least not yet.

“Even the American Petroleum Institute earlier this evening found another build in both crude and gasoline inventories which could spell trouble for speculators in the gasoline markets for the rest of the summer. With demand faultering and a forty five day delivery time from oil patch to the consumer, time is fast running out for them. July is coming and it’s ‘mid-August’ on the buying markets in what could be a wrote-off season.

“Looks like what you see is what you’ll get for the rest of the summer season, barring any unforeseen or geo-political changes. It could be a much cheaper summer traveling season than what we’ve been used to”.

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For more information, contact;

George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, June 22, 2017

Hi to all,

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

*Heating and stove oils to drop a penny.

*Diesel fuel to drop by 1.3 cents a litre, and...

*Gasoline to drop three cents a litre.

Oil and refined prices continue lower. Consumers to benefit

“Oil prices and refined commodity prices continue their retreat and consumers again will see the benefit”. That’s according to George Murphy, researcher with the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

“ The US Energy Information Administration’s weekly data last week showed a continued build in gasoline inventories that still shows refiners are producing more than what was needed in the face of expected demand that simply isn’t there---yet”, Murphy said.

“But we’re possibly coming to an end as small producers start to look at their break-even points as oil prices sink lower, so this next few weeks are going to be a huge test for everyone in the oil business. While further drops in prices are possible, they may be piece-meal compared to the last few weeks drops we’ve become accustomed to”.

News from OPEC also shows more oil than was expected coming out of Libya with that country producing more than 900 thousand barrels a day, rather than the expected 300 thousand a day in the previous month. While that may seem for some to be a small number, it throws a wrench into OPEC’s self-imposed cut of 1.2 million barrel a day that excluded both Libya and Nigeria due to damaged infrastructure from civil unrest.

“While ‘under a dollar’ a litre is still possible, we’d already be there except for the fact that there is still almost 9.8 cents a litre in extra taxes that we’re dealing with versus the same timeframe when we saw gas under a buck a litre”.

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For more information, contact:

George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, June 15, 2017

Hi to all,

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

          *Heating and stove oils to drop by 2.5 cents a litre.
          *Diesel fuel to drop by 2.6 cents a litre, and...
          *Gasoline to drop by FOUR cents a litre.

Market highlights

OPEC breaks its own production freeze
The fact that Libya and Nigeria were exempted from the OPEC cuts agreement and it's extension a month ago was telling on what was thought to be two countries in a rough position as far as stability goes, and they are. However, both Libya and Nigerian production has suddenly come back, rather unexpectedly to OPEC I may add, to throw further doubt into the world oil glut situation.
     Both Libya and Nigeria combined to push overall OPEC production up by another 330,000 barrels a day during May month.
     That has helped to moderate prices over the last week, and acquisition costs of oil have come down as well to reflect the benefits to consumers.

Gasoline demand weaker than usual?
Gasoline inventories, according to the US Energy Information last week, climbed instead of falling during one of the driving season's busiest times for speculators.
     Weaker refinery capacity also showed the markets that with refinery production dropping, refiners were still able to add gasoline to the overall inventory, casting further doubt on what demand there will be for product heading into the depths of summer.
     As previously forecast here, there's still some pressure to the downside for gasoline, but I'm keeping an eye to the refiner capacity number to see if refiners throttle back on output in a move to support prices for the next little while.
     Already a sign that there may be trouble for the speculator out there if that indeed happens!

That's it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, June 8th, 2017

Hi to all,

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

*Heating and stove oils show a drop of 2.8 cents a litre.
*Diesel fuel shows a drop of 3.5 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows a drop of 2.1 cents a litre.

                                                                     

Market highlights

Oil stays steady in spite of Qatar situation
While some may have expected oil prices to take a sharp rise over recent tensions between Qatar and other Middle East neighbours, it seems some analysts have stepped back from the fray and are calling "business as usual" in the region.
     Fellow OPEC member states like Saudi Arabia have cut some ties with their neighbour over concerns that Qatar has been funding some fundamentalist organizations, like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda.
     Whether proven or not, speculators think that it's back to the usual when it comes to the oil business as others see it as a simple difference between Sunni and Shiite.

API reports gasoline inventories up
The American Petroleum Institute is reporting a huge increase in gasoline inventories this week.
     According to the industry-led organization, gasoline inventories unexpectedly increased by just over four million barrels, while distillate also showed an increase of close on 1.8 million barrels.
     Oil inventories were down by 4.6 million barrels.
     The US Energy Information Administration releases its inventory data tomorrow noon Newfoundland time.

That's it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil