Hello to all,

I’ll keep this one short, as there aren’t too many major changes this week around. Sorry this one comes late. I was down to Marystown doing some work, and, I’m literally just in the door. I know this one will come late as well to those on the auto emailer, so, my apologies in advance!

· Heating and stove oils show just a 4/100ths of a cent upwards movement.

· Diesel shows a 3/10ths of a cent upwards move, and…

· Gasoline is up by 1.2 cents a litre.

A hopeful sign from the markets in the last two days of trading as, in spite of oil prices supported around $104 US a barrel, numbers for gasoline have dropped from recent highs. The first five days of trading initially showed close on three cents a litre in upwards movement for this week, but since then, all numbers have been in decline. That start of a downturn may show itself to consumers next week, if the trend continues. So far, the numbers are close on four cents lower than what this week’s price settings will be.

Keep your fingers crossed, as we could see the start of a break for consumers in next week’s price setting. The trend is also showing for heating and stove oils, but still does not show in diesel numbers as of yet.

Market notes

· A good build in crude oil inventories with this week’s numbers showing an added 3.9 million barrels.

· Gasoline inventories are down by 3.7 million barrels, but gasoline inventories remain well above the average range, according to the Energy Information Administration. Oddity here is that total gasoline supplied to the markets was down by 2.8 per cent, probably indicative of a sign of Big Oil trying to keep supply and demand ‘In balance”. We’re still almost six million barrels over where we were this same time last year, so, there is no shortage.

· Another drop in distillate inventories as well, this time down by 2.9 million barrels.

· Refiner capacity was measured as 84.7 percentage points, again, down from last week.

Hope this helps everyone, and again, my apologies for the lateness of this one. Sometimes, my other duties are going to have to come first.

-30-

Regards for now!

George Murphy

Group researcher/Member

Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices

Twitter: @GeorgeMurphyNDP