- Retail regular gasoline prices fell by 5.8c in the last four weeks to $3.742/Gal. About 56% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
- Scroll down for a chart of the RBOB-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
- Total motor gasoline inventories fell by 1.5 MMBbl/d for the week ending October 21 and are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of year
- President Biden warned against windfall taxes for oil and gas companies making record profits without reinvesting in production
- The remarks come ahead of the U.S. midterm elections as the White House administration continues to be concerned about rising fuel costs due to heightened inflation
- “The oil industry has not met its commitment to invest in America and support the American people,” Biden said Monday. He called the industry’s profits “a windfall of war,” said Biden on Monday
- However, oil executives say they can only do so much to lower prices in the short term
- Major projects take years of planning and development and need to offer attractive long-term returns and be backed by consistent energy policies
- A windfall tax or export ban, according to Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, would be "short-sighted" because it would discourage investment in energy
- He added that “Typically if you want less of something, you tax it”
|
- Retail diesel prices rose by 44.4c in the last four weeks to $5.312/Gal. About 42% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
- Scroll down for a chart of the NY Harbor ULSD-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
- Distillate fuel inventories rose by 0.2 MMBbl/d for the week ending October 21 and are about 20% below the five-year average for this time of year
- Days of supply for total distillate in the U.S is at 27 days for the week ending October 21
- If refiners can keep up with demand, the number will gradually increase. The supply has marginally increased from the week ending October 7's 24.2 days of supply to the current 27.4 days
- Refiners are already operating at high utilization rates, but refinery closures and conversions that took place since the beginning of the pandemic are some of the major factors behind the current shortage
- AEGIS notes that the diesel fuel supply might be very tight going into winter amid increasing demand and as sanctions on Russian oil materialize
|
