Crude fell for the second straight day going in inverse direction to the dollar but still rose 3.2% over last week's ending price. Distillate also lost for the second straight day but still was 2.8% over last week's Friday close. Gasoline rose above yesterday's loss and is 4% above a week ago. It was the decline in gasoline inventory that helped to cement the rise of crude and gasoline. The inventory decrease is not due to increased demand but because of reduced supply due to lower refinery utilization.
Interesting article in today's WSJ concerning falling natural gas prices and drilling that leads to lower production prices for crude. This helps producing companies but not refiners. Crack spreads are still lower than profitable which is why refiners are reducing utilization.
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