Tightened Ranges & Summer Gas Transition Ahead
After last weeks well scripted Iranian Strike on Israel, it appears that the short term range has tightened at a new comfort level. While diesel futures settle below the $2.60 mark, many anticipated a further retreat to the $2.40 level. That has failed to materialized just yet with the range now set between $2.55 and $2.65 for the short term. Distillate inventories added 1.6 million barrels(mbl) last week and demand is still off by about 4% over last year, the focus now turns towards gasoline as the “driving season” is set to begin. With that, we will start to see news clips on gas prices for sure, already in the past week we have been hit with headlines of prices at the pump “up over $.20 in the last week alone!” It’s not the market, it’s not gouging, it’s not any political party, it’s the conversion from winter grade gas to summer grade gas… happens every year folks. Some year the spreads are wider than others. ( feel free to reach out on a more detailed RVP discussion) Gas is on the high end of its current range and about $.15 higher than last year at this time, should its demand numbers remain low, down about 11% to last year, I would expect some cooling off in pricing with distillates to follow. Keep an eye out as some Q4 fixed price opportunities could pop up.