Good morning,
I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Easter weekend. I know the weather is colder but I hope family time is fun and enjoyable.
As far as the markets go, WTI crude has settled down. The geopolitical issues have relaxed and WTI closed below $65/barrel this week. Whew!… I hope that we have peaked on crude pricing going into the spring. With the close of Q1, we will see if there is some profit taking on the WTI trade starting in April. Crude inventories did increase this last week. And although refinery maintenance has been minimal keep utilization high, crude production ticked up another 100k barrels/day last week. Right now the U.S. has Russia production levels in their sites. We might be able to surpass Russia by the end of the year which could put the OPEC deals in jeopardy.
In local news, gasoline prices have peaked going into the Easter weekend. Diesel prices have remained somewhat flat. With the change in RVP to summer on gasoline, I don’t expect to see prices come down on gasoline until WTI drops in price.
Propane prices have been steady due to the cold weather. I am expecting to see good demand yet through mid-April. Hopefully we will see some more price relief on propane going into May. More info on summer fills and next year’s heating contracts will be coming out in few months.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to give us a call.
Best regards,
Jon Crawford – Pres.