Price changes for Thursday, October 8th, 2020

 

Hi to all,

 

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

 

*Heating and stove oils to drop by 2/10ths of a cent.

*Diesel to drop by 1/10^th of a cent, and...

*Gasoline to drop by 2.4 cents a litre.

 

Market highlights

 

North Atlantic Refinery to shutter?

Word is that the North Atlantic refinery is due to close its doors after operating almost uninterrupted since 1986.

     Irving supposedly walked away from the deal to buy the refinery that was said to be close, with workers I know being told to expect a return to work by early October.

     It was not to be.

     A company called “Origin International” also made approaches to purchase the refinery in July, but nothing has been heard from them yet, other than a possible statement in the coming days.

     While refineries around the world have begun to shut their doors as a result of Covid-19 and unending price wars, it could also be said that alternative energies have made a huge dent in decisions for major refiners to remain in operation.

      But the sale of North Atlantic was important, if not to the Irving’s who, when you look at it, may possibly have been given “conditional sale” conditions that had to be met by the Federal Competition Bureau before any purchase could happen.

      In my mind, the sale of the refinery could have led to “too much concentration in the marketplace” and consumers and possibly pricing could have been at risk, not just here, but anywhere in eastern Canada that would be serviced by the refinery.

 

Libya and Venezuela coming back online could see oil lower

A closely brokered peace deal between rival factions in Libya has resulted in the first exports of crude oil from the North African country in six months.

     Shipments measuring 290,000 barrels a day over the last week have hit the waves and are mostly bound for European ports of call.

     In the meantime, Venezuela has also started exporting some crude, particularly in Iranian tankers as Venezuela remains under a heavy watch by the US.

     690,000 barrels a day left ports there in September, up from 503,000 the month previous.

 

US inventory data

US crude oil inventories as reported by the US Energy Information Administration this week, dropped another two million barrels, while gasoline inventories were up just slightly by 700,000 barrels.

      Distillate inventories were reported down by 3.2 million barrels on 75.8% refiner capacity.

      US domestic production was recorded at 10.7 million barrels a day, down 1.7 million from the year earlier.

 

That’s it for this week!

 

Regards,

 

George Murphy

Twitter @georgemurphyoil