Fuels Market Watch 24

FUEL MARKETS TODAY – Market Overview

Crude oil and refined product prices have been trending back up gently over the past 24 hours. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude prices in today’s trading session opened at $67.82/b, down slightly by $0.06 from yesterday’s opening. Gasoline and diesel futures prices opened higher in today’s session, recouping some of last week’s losses.

Last week, the oil complex finished in the red. WTI crude prices dropped by $2.05 (2.9%.) Gasoline prices fell by 2.7 cents (1.4%.) Diesel prices shed 2.49 cents (1.1%.) The current upward trend may be related to supply concerns, with a slight drop in the U.S. oil rig count, Iranian sanctions looming and reports of a terrorist attack in Libya. The U.S. is also in the midst of hurricane season.

Hurricane Florence regained some of its power on Sunday, and weather forecasters predict that it could become a major storm. The U.S. Eastern seaboard states from Florida all the way to Virginia are tracking the hurricane, which could hit the coast by Thursday night or Friday morning as a Category 3 storm. Today is the peak of Atlantic hurricane season. Two other hurricanes are active in the Atlantic, but neither are targeting the U.S. In the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Olivia is projected to hit the Hawaiian Islands by midweek.

Baker Hughes published its active rig count data on Friday, showing a net loss of two oil rigs (860 down from 862 the week prior) and a net gain of two natural gas rigs (186 versus 184 the week prior.) WTI crude prices have been swinging up and down, but over the ten weeks between the first week of July and the last week ended September 9th, WTI prices fell by nearly $6/b. The active oil rig count has stalled, declining from 863 during the first week of July to 860 during the week ended September 7th.