Distillates up, gasoline is down for this Thursday

Hi to all...

Figured that I would keep this simple again!

Not too much change in the numbers although distillate prices are elevated over the past week, as predicted they would be, and they will be going up.

Gasoline, according to my numbers, will be dropping.

Here's what I have for this coming Thursday with all the data now in;

• Heating and stove oils show an added 1.27 cents a litre.
• Diesel shows an added 1.6 cents a litre, and...
• Gasoline shows a drop of 1.9 cents a litre.

Market highlights

• Oil continues to bounce around the $80 US a barrel mark, all in spite of the latest news on economic recovery. The US and China are both having their problems, numbers being reflected in China regarding inflation and numbers in the US reflecting dropping productivity and lower housing starts.
• The Canadian dollar lost close to two cents against the US greenback. Because the Canadian dollar is so tied to resources like the value of oil, it lost ground when oil retreated by $2 US over the past week.
• Refineries operated at a 91.2 per cent capacity last week. There's lots of product out there and it is being bought by consumers, that fact being reflected in the demand figures. gasoline demand is up better than two per cent, while distillates are showing increased demand as well.
• With lots of crude oil on hand, refiners bought little and that impacted inventories of oil, dropping by some 2.8 million barrels. Gasoline and distillate inventories increased however, making this the third week in a row for inventory gains amongst refined products. Unless something extraordinary happens in the markets right now, we're already past peak pricing for summer gasoline.
• The average price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil was $75.84 a barrel, the third month in a row that crude oil was below the $83 US a barrel estimate needed by the provincial government to show budget numbers as being on track. Crude oil now needs to average better than $87.50 a barrel for the rest of the year for the province not to have to worry over another budget deficit.

That's it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy
Group researcher/Member
Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices