Hi to all,
Here’s what I have
for this week’s price changes. Sorry it’s so late, but I’m just home from a
late night at work!
*Heating and stove
oils to increase by 2.4 cents a litre.
*Diesel to increase
by 2.6 cents a litre, and...
*Gasoline shows an
increase of 3.8 cents a litre.
Market highlights
US-Iran tensions
play out
What started as
attacks against two tankers last week has expanded to a shootdown of a US drone
allegedly in Iranian airspace that threatens to expand into a full-out
conflict. Oil rose the past week as fears of a supply disruption of anything
leaving through the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
Things
seemed to ease a little just yesterday as President Trump seemed to downplay
the threat and shootdown of a US military drone as being from someone not
acting on the part of the Iranian government.
US-China trade and
tariff talks
Market traders
seemed upbeat the last few days after word leaked that the US sent negotiating
teams ahead of Donald Trumps meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, president of the
Asian country, in the hope that common ground could be found in bringing an end
to the tariff dispute between the two major economic powers.
Both leaders will hopefully meet at the G20 meeting later this week to have
direct talks to alleviate the dispute.
Any positive outcome will support and likely raise further, the price of oil as
anticipated demand will pick up.
Philadelphia
refinery fire
A fire at the
Philadelphia Energy Solutions plant has taken 200,000 barrels of production out
of a total of 335,000 barrel a day refinery in the U.S northeast.
While initially thought to be critical, the stock of gasoline and production at
the refinery will be replaced with product through the U.S Colonial Pipeline
system, bringing in any shortfall of supplies to market.
It is estimated that it may take upwards of two years to have the refinery back
to full production as the fire destroyed a chunk of available overall
production.
While gasoline prices initially made strong upwards moves, prices have since
stabilized.
That’s it for this
week!
Regards,
George Murphy
Twitter
@GeorgeMurphyOil
Hi to all,
Here’s what I have
for this week’s price changes:
*Heating and stove
oils to increase by 4/10ths of a cent a litre.
*Diesel to increase
by 3/10ths of a cent, and...
*Gasoline to
decrease by 3/10ths of a cent a litre.
Market highlights
US inventories up
again
US inventories of
crude oil were up again this past week for the fourth week in a row, continuing
speculation that there could soon be another oversupply of crude building in
the markets.
In spite of cuts to production from Iran, Venezuela and other OPEC and non-OPEC
production, prices have continued to fall in the face of a possible world
economic slowdown.
Crude oil showed an extra 2.2 million barrels over the week previous and
Gasoline supply was also up another 800,000 barrels.
Refiner capacity was reported at 93.2 percent, up another two points over the
previous week.
Oil rises on tanker
attacks
Speculation that
Iran was behind two attacks against oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week
also saw oil rise as speculators see the attacks as a threat to overall world
supplies if the attacks continue.
The two tankers in question were under Japanese and Norwegian ownership, but no
connection has been made between that, and the fact that Japan’s Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe is the chief negotiator trying to get Iran and the United States
back to the negotiation table.
US-China talks on
again?
Oil rose sharply
over the last two days, partially motivated on word that “tariff talks” are on
again in the hope of avoiding a trade war that could hurt Chinese demand for
crude oil as well as damage the world economy.
No
date has been given for the expiration of this round of talks that will start
ahead of a scheduled G20 meeting next week.
Both
countries negotiators are meeting ahead of that to try to hammer out a deal on
tariffs before Trump meets with President Xi Jinping of China at the G20.
That’s it for this
week!
Regards,
George Murphy
Twitter
@GeorgeMurphyOil
Hi to all,
Here’s what I have
for price changes in what has proven to be a very volatile week:
*Heating and stove
oils to drop by 5.7 cents a litre.
*Diesel to drop by
5.4 cents a litre.
*Gasoline to drop
by 5.4 cents a litre.
Market highlights
Tariffs, tariffs,
tariffs...
While the
long-standing tariff dispute carries on with a quickly approaching deadline for
any agreement to settle the argument, the US has also turned to the tariff mechanism
as a diplomatic weapon to use against its southern neighbour, Mexico.
In fact, what Trump has done is cause more world economic worries to add to an
already unsteady situation.
The Trump administration was out this week announcing the use of tariffs to get
Mexico to deal with the US immigration issue. For years, illegal immigrants
have used the US-Mexico border area as a gateway to the US, and the US wants it
to stop, placing several industries there and in Canada, under threat. Oil went
lower again as a result.
Again this past week, the ongoing tariff dispute played downwards on oil prices
as time has been ticking away toward the deadline for resolution of the
dispute.
The U.S is promising more tariffs, but China is responding with an economic
weapon of it’s own, next to the further imposition of tariffs on US goods.
They’re also promising added difficulties in getting rare earth minerals from
China to the world markets, promising a technology war at the same time.
US inventories
weigh
US inventories
showed a build in gasoline last week with the raw liquid adding 2.2 million
barrels to supplies, while oil stayed relatively steady, dropping 300K barrels.
But the real news may have been with US domestic figures which showed another
100K barrel a day expansion in production with the US now hitting 12.3 million
barrels a day.
Refiner capacity was up to 91.2 percent, but gasoline still showed a build in
inventory in spite of the total product supplied.
That’s it for this
week!
Regards,
George Murphy
Twitter
@GeorgeMurphyOil
