Good morning,
WTI prices gained more than 40% on hopes of the world economies reopening and demand potentially soaring back with a vengeance. WTI settled this week near $24/barrel. In addition, the builds in US inventories were not as large as expected. Production seems to finally be dropping. However, in my opinion, the rally back seems to be a bit over-bought. Inventory levels are still high and the world supply is still robust. Unless there are more stories of magical cures hitting the market this month, there is a potential for another massive sell-off on the WTI contract this month. Saudi Arabia did cut a bunch of tanker shipments, but at the same time, there are not many tankers left to fill! So for now, WTI will probably hang around these levels and move in volatile swings until the end of the month.
In local retail news, gasoline retail prices continue to rise. The glut of supply in Chicago is gone. Gasoline and diesel costs have risen over 50 cents/gallon these past weeks. I expect average retail prices of $1.69/gallon gasoline and $1.79/gallon diesel fuel to continue into next week.
Propane prices continue to rise as I have been writing the past weeks. Propane seems to have bottomed in mid-March and not looked back. We are suggesting that everyone fill their tanks now if possible. Production cuts are adding to the supply worries in propane. Contracts for next season will be coming out probably in June sometime. Stay tuned.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to give us a call.
Best regards,
Jon Crawford