Price changes for Thursday, July 4th, 2019

Hi to all,



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



*Heating and stove oils show an increase of 8/10ths of a cent a litre.

*Diesel shows an increase of 1.3 cents, and...

*Gasoline shows an increase of 3.1 cents a litre.



Market highlights



US-China tariff war taking a “hiatus”

Oil prices rose a solid three dollars a US barrel over the past seven days as the US and China were said to meet at the G20 meetings in Japan. Oil rose as speculation in the markets swayed toward the thought that demand would pick up for oil if there was to be any settlement in the dispute between the US and China.

      Oil started a retreat today on word that only a truce was agreed upon to allow for more time for discussions to happen. Headwinds still are out there in efforts to get nearly $250 billion in tariffs removed from Chinese goods that have been hit.



US inventories take a hit

The inventory report from the US Energy Information Administration was released last Wednesday that also saw another impetus for oil to rise.

     Crude oil inventories took a major hit as supplies dipped by 12.8 million barrels, but still remained five percentage points over the average for this time of year.

     Gasoline supplies also dipped a million barrels as refiner capacity increased, springing signs of a slight increase in demand even though some describe demand as being “tempered”.

     US domestic production also dropped another hundred thousand barrels to show the US producing 12.1 million barrels a day, a drop of three hundred thousand in three weeks.



Costco moves west-but prices haven’t dropped-yet

While the new Costco location has opened, the hoped for continued difference in prices at the pumps in the west end of the city haven’t reacted to the new competition-yet.

     While prices saw a noticeable drop in the Immediate St. John’s northeast area the last couple of years, no real difference in prices have been seen yet with the move by Costco.

     Worth noting is that prices in St. John’s and the northeast ranged well below the regulated maximum during Costco’s time there.

      I’ll be keeping an eye to this one for any price moves in the coming weeks.



That’s it for this week!



Regards,



George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil