Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas (albeit a bit early)!
Figured that with all the holiday traveling bound to happen this weekend, I would keep you updated on what to expect! =)
At the time I’m writing this (4:30pm EST) gasoline markets have “closed” down about 3 cents. We’re down to $1.65 per gallon for wholesale gasoline, which is better than the $1.72 we saw earlier this week. The Dept. of Energy report Wednesday on stockpiles wasn’t so great. Crude oil stockpiles dropped big. 6 million barrels to be exact. However, gasoline stockpiles got a 1 million barrel boost. Refiners are back at it, utilizing 90%+ of their usable capacity (down from a peak of around 93% in summer, but better than 87% during maintenance). After all, they should be trying to all out produce until Jan. 1 to drive down their inventories for tax purposes.
As for the “Chicago Discount” we’ve been seeing, you can expect that to continue for just a bit longer, as the Midwest PADD District gained in storage (from 51.2 to 51.8 million barrels) making the “high storage” discount roughly 2-3 cents per gallon. However, I expect after the holidays that discount to dry up as many in the Midwest travel the clean, dry roads this year (increasing local demand and driving down stockpiles)
I expect by the New Year we’ll see gasoline down to about 2.25-2.29, but I’ll keep you updated. For sure it looks like prices should be soon arriving at 2.25-2.33 at many locations.
A few more notes; you can put me down as saying that OPEC’s actions this month and last (by cutting oil supplies) could really hurt us come Spring and Summer. I also find it frustrating that when oil recently dropped below OPEC’s weighted average of $60, some OPEC countries were saying that they couldn’t survive. Rediculous. Just a few years ago they were happy with $22-$28. Just like many in corporate America, OPEC is getting greedy. Oh well.
P.S.- I’d like to welcome notable radio personality Gary Allen (WOOD 1300) to the mailing list. I am hoping that perhaps with his help, we can get a few more people to sign up or read The Gas Game and become more aware on how to save money!
Be sure to drive safe this holiday!
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