Price changes for Thursday, March 26th, 2020

Hi to all,



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



*Heating and stove oils to drop by 1.8 cents a litre.

*Diesel to drop by 1.5 cents a litre, and...

*Gasoline to drop by *10.1 cents a litre



*Again, I can’t attest to the accuracy in the gasoline number, but it did trade that low before...Two occasions...1986 and again in August 1998. As low as 15.7 cents a litre in  Monday trading.



Market highlights



Demand destruction complete

Again this week, a sign that gasoline has finally met complete destruction as people are home and no gas is being consumed.

     With the world facing the Covid-19 virus fight, a fight for our very lives, markets turned upside down with cars parked and refineries with product with absolutely nowhere to go.

     Since February 25^th, the last time we saw prices increase, I have witnessed gasoline spot prices drop an astronomical 57 cents a litre to 17 cents a litre on the markets as of business day ending Tuesday.

      That’s forty cents plus taxes.



Refiners about to pay the price

As demand dies for most petroleum products, refiners are soon going to start to feel the pinch with predicted shutdowns of US refiner capacity in the works.

     Estimates in the US are accounting for a 30 percent drop in refiner capacity as demand wanes for most products, gasoline particularly as people get shut in with the shutdown of the US economy. Demand for gasoline could see a drop of 50 percent south of the border.

     And while refiners are dropping capacity, they still worry over getting rid of supplies now on hand. Some support remains for distillates as heating oil and diesel remain with some demand, but jet fuels fall into disfavour as flights remain grounded.

     Word has it that North Atlantic Refining has already laid off some people as refiners try to find ways to survive the downturn that has the potential to close some facilities along the US Northeast seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico.

      March 2, 2020 shortly before the collapse, US EIA figures showed Americans burned a record high 9.5 million barrels a day

      “It will cost you more for the plastic container than for the gas you put in it”.



That’s it for this week!



Regards,



George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil