Good afternoon,
Happy Friday! Not much happened this week in the world of crude oil trading. Most traders are either keeping their bets in place or not placing any bets. The price of WTI traded in a very narrow range of only a few dollars this week, but still holding above my predicted floor price of $70/barrel. Every time a piece of positive economic news was released, a negative counter was released, and vice a versa. I believe everyone is sitting on the sidelines waiting for Biden and McCarthy to strike a deal on the debt ceiling and digest the deal before there is movement in the marketplace. In all honesty, the crude oil trade was fairly quiet this week.
In local news, diesel prices continued their recent slide, but flattened out by the end of the week. Gasoline prices continued their upward movement, even as demand stays flat. Refiners are just not making a lot of gasoline. The arbitrage for diesel on the world market is too great and if economic downturn occurs this summer, no refiner wants to be stuck with a bunch of gasoline. So I expect gasoline retail prices to climb a bit or flatten out. And I think diesel retail will drop a touch and hold.
Propane prices, along with crude were fairly flat this week. I think the bottoming of prices for the summer is very soon or happening now. Next season’s heating contracts will be released on the coming Monday. We also suggest that everyone take advantage of our lower summer fill price. You can work with our staff on liberal gallonage requirements to receive some propane at these lower prices.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to give us a call.
Best regards,
Jon Crawford