Price changes for Thursday, December 1, 2016

Hello!,

Here's what I have for this week's price changes.

Keep in mind that these numbers this time around for gasoline may be off a little from the actual the PUB may set, considering they picked up more volatility than my numbers did last week!

*Heating and stove oils show an increase of just 2/10ths of a cent a litre.
*Diesel shows an increase of 7/10ths and...
*Gasoline shows an added 1.5 cents a litre at the pumps.

*Don't be surprised if you see the PUB back down from last week's numbers. While I show an increase, it may be part of the volatility I missed out on LAST WEEK'S price change.

Market highlights

OPEC deal in doubt...Again
Russia remains non-committal in a production cut, while OPEC members Iraq and Iran are still holding their cards to their chests. Both Iran and Iraq want to reach their production limits before they institute any cut or freeze to production, while OPEC members Nigeria and Libya also want to be left out of any production cut the group may come up with at tomorrow's meeting.
      Interesting to watch, but oil has shown some pretty heavy volatility while OPEC itself tries to hammer out any deal.
     Also entering into market thinking is the possibility that US domestic production has shown some resiliency and may be quick to respond to "market needs" should a cut from OPEC come into play.

I'm going to leave it at that for now.

More tomorrow when the OPEC meeting breaks away.

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, November 24th, 2016

Hi to all,

Here's what I have for this week's price changes, with all data in:

*Heating and stove oil show an increase of 2.0 cents per litre for Thursday....
*Diesel shows an added 2.6 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows an increase of a penny a litre.

Market highlights

OPEC keeps talking
      OPEC members are seemingly coming close to an agreed set of cuts to production and that seems to have spurred prices for oil upwards over the last few days. But what I'm watching for is OPEC member compliance with a round of cuts that still makes me not believe that they ever will take hold and help support the price of oil.
      Consensus I am hearing is OPEC leaning toward a possible four to five percent cut in overall output that will bring OPEC total daily production down a rough 1.5 million barrels a day.
      If anything, oil prices may be supported for a very short timeframe, and that's when I believe two things will happen: US domestic production will kick in, and OPEC members will take advantage and cheat on those self-imposed cuts.
      Rumours in the markets have OPEC allowing fellow members Iraq and Iran to produce at present output and not cut production in order to have them sign on to a cuts agreement. The deal set to be signed at the next meeting of OPEC November 25th will be a "make or break" deal for the organisation and may be the hedge-point by which OPEC stands or falls.

I'll leave it at that for this week, but I'll be watching the oil news with much interest this weekend!

I'll keep you all up to date.

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, November 17, 2016

Hi to all,

Here are the final numbers for this week's price changes:

*Heating and stove oil to drop by 9/10ths of a cent a litre....
*Diesel fuel to drop by 1.1 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline to drop by 4.3 cents a litre.

Market highlights

OPEC swings the market

There's no doubt that while OPEC is losing some market influence, there's no doubt who carries the influence within the group itself.
     After a wild downward swing in oil yesterday, Saudi Arabia warned its fellow OPEC members that if they all didn't comply with a scheduled cut in production, it would again flood the markets with cheap oil by opening their own spigots, raising their own production levels to hit over eleven million barrels a day.
     With that threat, OPEC members are believed to be starting to fall in line with the idea of cuts to production and then the speculators moved in, pumping up oil prices today by over $2 US a barrel.
     Refined product prices also responded, moving upwards at the end of the day, but still not enough to stop predicted decreases to consumer prices here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
     Meetings between technical staff from member OPEC nations moved up their November 25th meetings to November 21st in response to the Saudi threat. That's nine days out from OPEC's regular meeting on cuts due to happen November 30th.

US domestic production continues to rise
For the fifth week in a row, US domestic production has increased again, this time by another 240,000 barrels a day in response to rising prices.
     Latest data seems to confirm that the shale industry has indeed started to get some measure of control over costs and have responded to the sensitivities of prices around $45 US in order to break even.
     Also to note here is what appears to me to be a sharp increase in a very short time. If OPEC cuts, look to the shale industry south of the border to respond in short order as well.

I'll leave it at that for this week...

Regards and pass the word on the numbers!

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, November 10, 2016

Hi to all,

Here's what I have for this week's price changes, now that all the data is in...

A reminder: My heating, stove oil and Diesel numbers may be off somewhat due to winter blending! Use them as an indicator as to the direction these fuels could go, and not the actual that may occur.

                                                                                 ...

*Heating and stove oils show a drop of 4.3 cents a litre.
*Diesel shows a drop of 4.0 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows a drop of 1.4 cents a litre.

Highlights

Colonial pipeline back online
Late Sunday saw the return of operation of the Colonial pipeline that resulted in a short-lived spike in gasoline prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday/Wednesday of last week. As soon as word was received that the disruption would not last that long, and that operations of the pipeline would re-start, spots ended up in a headlong retreat after rising close to four cents a litre in trading.
      Spot prices for gasoline have since returned to "pre-disruption" levels.

That's it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy
Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil

Price changes for Thursday, November 3, 2016

Hi to all,

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

*Heating and stove oils to drop by 8/10ths of a cent per litre.

*Diesel to drop by an even penny, and...

*Gasoline shows a drop of just 6/10ths of a cent.

Market highlights

Another closure of the Columbian pipeline disrupts gasoline output

An explosion and fire has again closed the Colonial pipeline that runs from the US Gulf of Mexico refining and export areas to the US northeast, causing a sharp increase in gasoline spot prices on the New York mercantile exchange today that may not be felt by Newfoundland and Labrador consumers until they hit the pumps next week IF the line isn’t repaired soon.

    Before today, numbers showed a small decrease of a penny a litre, but the fire and explosion that took one life has resulted in a sharp increase in gasoline prices as a result of a “supply disruption”.

    “We’ll see how it goes in the markets over the next couple of days, but prices are already showing close to a four cent a litre increase could happen if today’s closing prices carry through the week”.

      Repairs are estimated to take until Saturday at the earliest to bring the line back into full operation again.

OPEC deal could fall apart?

OPEC’s deal to make a cut to production may already be under threat as Iran and now Iraq, are expressing dissatisfaction with having to institute cuts before they reach maximum “pre-war” production levels.

      That played into the markets this week allowing Brent prices to drop almost $3 US a barrel to close today at $47 and change.

       Speculators are also keeping in mind that the Saudi government is looking at raising cash through the sale of stock in the government owned Saudi Aramco oil company, saying the only reason why the Saudi’s wanted a freeze was to raise the share price and increase the government take.

       In the meantime, OPEC meets again at the end of this month to formally implement the limited production agreement.

       Food for thought...

That’s it for this week!

Regards,

George Murphy

Twitter @GeorgeMurphyOil