- Retail regular gasoline prices rose by 2c in the last four weeks to $3.422/Gal. About 53% 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 2.1 MMBbl/d for the week ending March 10 and are about 3% below the five-year average for this time of year
- France’s two biggest oil refineries halt operations as strikes escalate (BBG, SPGlobal)
- Total's 0.25 MMBbl/d Normandy refinery and Exxon's 0.24 MMBbl/d Gravenchon plant are halting operations as protests over the government's pension reform plans escalate
- Together the two refineries account for 42% of France's total 1.164 MMBbl/d refining capacity
- "High gasoline and diesel stocks in ARA have helped cushion the impact, reducing the likelihood of large price spikes seen in October during a period of strikes in France," said S&P Global in a note on March 16
- So far in March, France has released roughly 1.25 MMBbl of petroleum products to prevent shortages of gasoline and diesel
- Also, France asked that some airlines preserve their jet fuel reserves, which can be done by refueling planes outside of France
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- Retail diesel prices fell by 29.5c in the last four weeks to $4.185/Gal. About 41% 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 fell by 2.5 MMBbl/d for the week ending March 10 and are about 8% below the five-year average for this time of year
- US Retail diesel prices post a seventh-consecutive weekly loss
- The national average diesel price fell 6.2c/Gal from a week ago to $4.185
- According to EIA data, prices haven't been this low since February 28, 2022, when the national average was $4.104
- A relatively warm U.S. winter, along with declining prices, helped push the U.S. distillate inventories to 119.7 MMBbl
- However, any pickup in economic activity or an uptick in demand could deepen the imbalance between supply and demand
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