Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Price changes for Thursday, February 21st, 2019


Hi to all,



Here’s what I have for this week’s price changes. Keep in mind that winter blending is still in effect, so the distillate numbers may be off somewhat.



*Heating and stove oils show an increase of 3.4 cents a litre.

*Diesel fuel shows an increase of 3.7 cents a litre, and...

*Gasoline shows an increase of 4.3 cents a litre.



Market highlights



Saudi Arabia expands production...cuts

Surprise!

     OPEC member Saudi Arabia announced last week that it would add another 500,000 barrels a day to cuts already made with other OPEC and non-OPEC nations in a move designed to help support oil prices.

     The cuts would start in March and add to the 1.3 million barrel a day cut agreed to by those enations in November. The surprise announcement helped boost oil prices another $3 US over the past week.



Refiner production down

Ironic as it may be, just as prices for gasoline start to ramp up ahead of the spring run-up to the summer driving season, refiners are shutting down for maintenance and to do the switch from mostly distillate production to gasoline.

     It may be February, but with a 45 day delivery time from the oil patch to consumer, there’s really not that much time before we enter spring, or at least south of the border anyway.

     With speculators eying the summer driving season, it stands to reason the same time every year, that a run-up in gasoline spot prices is also quick to follow.



Eye on Venezuela

US sanctioning of Venezuelan imports of crude haven’t had too much effect on Venezuelan production...yet.

      January production of crude oil was measured at 1.1 million barrels a day, down 59,000 barrels from the month previous, but down almost thirty percentage points for the same time period a year earlier.

      US sanctions have helped support the price of West Texas Intermediate as any sour crude from Venezuela has resulted in replacement from American and other sources.

      I’ll be keeping an eye for any other signs of disruptions here as any may cause further increases in price if supply can’t be met through other sources.



That’s it for this week!



Regards,



George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

No comments: