Analysis by Dr. Nancy Yamaguchi
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly data on diesel and gasoline retail prices for the week ended July 30, 2017. Prices rose for both fuels at the national level. Retail diesel prices rose by 2.4 cents per gallon, while gasoline prices increased by 4.0 cents per gallon. Retail prices rose in all PADDs and in all major state/metropolitan area submarkets.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude opened at $50.21 per barrel (/b) this morning, up 36 cents from yesterday’s opening value. This was the first time WTI had opened above $50/b since May 25. Prices had tapered down to $49.77/b as of 7:44 a.m. EDT, per Bloomberg, down by 39 cents from today’s opening.
The Trump administration sanctioned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday, freezing any of Maduro’s personal assets that are under U.S. jurisdiction and preventing any dealings with him. The U.S. is accusing Maduro of undermining democracy by moving to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution. The sanctions are viewed as an intermediate step, falling short of banning imports of Venezuelan oil.
The U.S. imported 741 thousand barrels per day (kbpd) of crude oil from Venezuela in 2016, and imports were averaging 720.8 kbpd during the January – May 2017 period, as reported by the EIA.
