Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Oil trades lower, commodities trade steady
No big drops predicted in spite of lower oil

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, January 13, 2009- Oil may be trading lower but that doesn’t mean that its related commodities are trading lower too. Consumers in Newfoundland and Labrador shouldn’t expect big changes to pricing when pricing is set this week by the provinces’ Public Utilities Board.

“The numbers are down only slightly in spite of the news from the markets that shows declining demand for most fuel products. Heating and stove oils are expected to see a bare 12/100ths down. Gasoline is expected to drop by close on a half cent and diesel is expected to drop by close on three tenths of a cent,” said George Murphy of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

“The only thing I can figure here is that there was a heavy investment in the refined commodity rather than an investment in oil, but that doesn’t begin to reflect the reality of the markets. In the face of dropping demand and bad economic news, the price for the refined commodity traded the same all week. The realities of builds in inventory were outweighed here by the talk of refiners cutting back on refining of crude oil products. They are trying to strike the balance between market need and demand factors. Some call it capitalism; I call it direct market manipulation.

“Last week saw a heavy build in crude oil inventory and that didn’t even factor into the markets as it did the week previous. Add to that the fact that all major refined products all saw inventories increase and you really have to ask yourself why these prices aren’t droping more than what’s being predicted. It’s a little ludicrous when we see the factors of supply and demand not playing into the markets rather than becoming key factors in price drops as they have in other weeks.”
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For more information, contact;
George Murphy
Group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

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