Price changes for Thursday, February 1st, 2018

Hi to all,

Here's what I have for price changes for this Thursday, February 1st:

*Heating/stove oils show an increase of 8/10ths of a cent.
*Diesel shows an increase of 1.2 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows an increase of 1.2 cents a litre as well.

Market highlight

Oil hits a wall?
While oil prices have being showing a steady rise as of late with people like myself waiting for U.S domestic production to respond, strong signs are emerging that we might be hitting the wall on further increases to oil prices.
     Cracks started appearing this week in speculators upwards trading of oil prices that may have been partly influenced by a huge growth in domestic production last week that, in itself, may have led to a decline in prices the past two days of market trading.
With oil prices butting heads with $70 US a barrel oil, it was long expected that U.S domestic production would soon ramp up on prices alone and help add a buttress to rising prices.
     Last week may have been the turning point.
     With U.S domestic set to hit 10 million barrels a day as soon as this week, speculators are starting to pull back on bets for rising oil and the past two days have shown oil retreating back to $68 US on "fears" that U.S domestic is beginning to take off.
     While it may be of no benefit this week for consumers here, the real benefits will be garnered as soon as next week if inventory reports confirm further increases to U.S domestic production figures tomorrow.

I'll keep it at that for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy

Price changes for Thursday, January 25th, 2018

Hi to all,

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

*Heating and stove oils to drop by 8/10ths of a cent a litre.
*Diesel to drop by 1.1 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline to increase by 1.6 cents a litre.

Market highlights

OPEC meetings in Oman
News out of Oman this evening that must put a smile on the faces of anyone dealing in Middle East commodities as OPEC members are agreeable to continuing their production cuts well past 2018.
     The cuts by OPEC producers were supposed to expire in 2018, but members are now in agreement that "much more needs to be done" to help bring the oil markets back to balance, and that their cuts seem to be bringing some redress to that end.

API report shows a build
The American Petroleum Institute reported a build in inventories of both oil and gasoline products after today's market close, but the real news will probably come in tomorrow's US EIA inventory report noon Wednesday.
      The API reported a build of 4.7 million barrels, while gasoline showed a build of 4.1 million barrels.
      The inventory report was enough to temper gains in oil prices in aftermarket trading.

That's it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for January 18, 2018

Hi to all,

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

*Heating and stove oils show a half cent a litre increase.

*Diesel fuel shows an increase of 7/10ths of a cent a litre, and...

*Gasoline shows an increase of 2.3 cents a litre.

Market highlights

Demand for world oil rising?

Some hints in the news this week may bring some a little hope for rising oil prices, but again it’s the potential influence of U.S domestic shale production that keeps things a little tempered.

            News reports out of China are implying a growing demand again as their economy ramps up, but it’s their neighbor to the south, India, that seems to be drawing more attention as the Asian country seems to be importing more oil that usual to meet its growing oil refining sector.

            Indian imports of oil have reportedly hit close to 4.8 million barrels a day into a country that only a few short years ago, was distantly thought of as a potential reason for increasing world demand and a still very young but growing economy.

U.S rig count rises again

The rig count south of the border is starting to show more signs of growth in what may be the first real sign of a response to rising world oil prices.

            The Baker Hughes rig count this past Friday saw an additional fifteen rigs go back to work with ten of those specifically searching for oil. The other five pursued natural gas, but no doubt would have oil as a residual to their production.

           With oil prices hitting $70 US for Brent this week and $64 US for West Texas Intermediate, there’s plenty of room for speculation.

            But the rig count may itself be the reason why we may yet see a more cautious market approach to the $70 US a barrel level. A second week of robust rig count growth may be enough to signal a retreat after this Friday as it could be seen as a sign of growing U.S output and a hedge against OPEC production cuts.

That’s it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil