Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Price changes for Thursday, July 12th, 2018


Hi to all,



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

*Heating and stove oils to drop by 1.2 cents a litre.

*Diesel fuel shows a drop of 1/10th of a cent a litre (no change) and...

*Gasoline shows a slight drop of 8/10ths of a cent a litre.



Market highlights



Saudi’s turn on the taps

OPEC member Saudi Arabia surprised everyone, including fellow OPEC member with the release of production figures earlier this week that caught even the markets off-guard.

      Saudi Arabia produced almost 10.7 million barrels a day during June month, up from 9.98 million barrels in May, and most of it ahead of the June 22nd meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC members who only then agreed to increase production.

      Venezuela was the big loser of production amidst internal problems as production there slipped below 1.4 million barrels a day from an average daily production of 2.91 million barrels a day in 2017.

       OPEC still has a long way to go to meet the shortfall in oil worldwide, but it is widely believed that only the Saudi’s can meet any needed production immediately to the markets.



Oil markets remain mostly “neutral” this week

The latest U.S Energy Information Administration inventory report, while nothing to cheer about, at least didn’t give speculators reason to celebrate.

      With refiner capacity down slightly by 4/10ths of a percentage point, crude oil inventories showed a slight increase of 1.2 million barrels all amidst market chatter of significant crude shortfalls and supply outages.

       Also, with the drop in capacity came a very slight decrease of 1.5 million barrels of gasoline, showing that production is close to meeting any demand for product out there.

       Prices remain at a balance at a critical time however, as any drop in refiner capacity will have to be met with an increase in product in order to avoid any increase to consumer prices. That may be hard as consumers hit the roads for the holidays.



Canadian dollar up slightly

The Canadian dollar increased slightly against it’s U.S cousin over the past week, rising  close on 1.5 cents against the greenback.

      With prices for refined product also staying mostly fixed over the past seven days, the dollar increase translated to a corresponding drop in prices, mostly affecting heating oil and gasoline prices.



That’s it for this week!



Regards,



George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

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