by John Keller | Feb 21, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) sent an email alert today warning of a $.05 wholesale fuel cost increase expected for February 22, 2011. The complete message is pasted here.
“The peace and calm for marketers who are today observing Presidents’ Day has been interrupted by a paroxysm in global prices for crude and refined products, which almost certainly will add 5cts/gal or more to wholesale prices tomorrow.”
“The New York open outcry markets are closed, but some hefty volumes have changed hands in electronic trading and sent overseas crude prices as high as they’ve been since September 2008, and pushed gasoline and diesel prices up 5- 7cts/gal in the process.”
“Brent crude, which has been the driving force behind NYMEX RBOB and heating oil futures price gains in 2011, traded for over $105/bbl this morning, spurred by violence that appeared to escalate into chaos in Libya. Libya produces some 1.7 million b/d of crude. There are also concerns that violence in the Persian Gulf may be ratcheted higher as unrest in the region shows no completion date.”
“April Brent crude was trading at $104.73/bbl, up $2.21/bbl at presstime. Even higher numbers were seen in electronic WTI action, where the expiring March contract moved up $4/bbl to $90.19/bbl and the April contract (which will soon represent the prompt month) rallied some $4.38/bbl to $94.08/bbl. This latter rally has the interest of technical analysts, who believe it may signal a much larger pop.”
“March RBOB futures were up 5.87cts/gal at $2.61/gal and April (the low RVP month) moved up 5.87cts /al to $2.749/gal. March heating oil was up 6.46cts/gal at $2.7775/gal and April barrels were 6.52cts/gal higher at $2.7912/gal.”
“Most U.S. oil companies are closed today (2/21/11), so OPIS has not yet seen a host of intraday moves. Terminals are quite busy, however, as jobbers race to get ahead of price increases that might add $400-$500 per load when spot markets reopen for business tomorrow.”
From a fuel price management perspective, this is one more indicator that the time is now to invest in fuel pricing solutions that allow for the monitoring of cost changes, competiitor responses, fuel volume actuals vs. targets, strategy review, price optimization, and price change execution, in order to make sure fuel budgets for the year stay on track.
by John Keller | Feb 14, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
Fuel prices increased yet again, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline rose 1 cent to $3.14/gallon, a gallon of midgrade was unchanged at $3.25, and a gallon of premium rose 1 cent to $3.38. Prices have now risen 8 of the past 9 weeks.
The largest fuel price increases were on the West Coast, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose five cents to $3.38/gallon. With the three cent increase in the Rocky Mountain and Gulf Coast regions, the average price for unleaded gas is now above $3.00/gallon in every region of the country. Only the Midwest region saw their average unleaded fuel price decrease, down three cents to $3.09/gallon.
As for individual states, Ohio had the largest fuel price decrease of the week, where prices dropped by $.13/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $2.99/gallon.
After seeing a seven cent price increase for unleaded the week before, Chicago fuel prices dropped by three cents this week to $3.28/gallon.
by John Keller | Feb 14, 2011 | Customer News
After completing their pilot program, Rutter’s Farm Stores is now beginning their full rollout of the PriceAdvantage fuel pricing solution to all their stores. This project includes an integration to their Radiant POS system, as well as to their Skyline signs. The pilot program of their five stores has proven successful at improving their speed to the street when implementing fuel price changes, and at giving them complete command and control over their fuel price management.
by John Keller | Feb 9, 2011 | Customer News
Sheetz is now approaching 200 as the number of their stores fully automated with PriceAdvantage and Radiant Systems POS. With PriceAdvantage, Sheetz is now controlling prices at the sign, POS and pump, freeing up Store Manager time to be more available for customer service, and providing lower costs in sign operations.
by John Keller | Feb 8, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Fuel prices increased again, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline rose 3 cents to $3.13/gallon, a gallon of midgrade rose 3 cents to $3.25, and a gallon of premium rose 3 cents to $3.37. The previous week showed a one cent decrease, but prices have risen 7 of the past 8 weeks.
Once again the largest fuel price increases were in the Rocky Mountain region, where the average gallon of unleaded gas rose five cents to $2.98/gallon. That region still has the lowest fuel prices in the country, one of only two regions where unleaded remains below $3.00/gallon. The other region below $3.00/gallon is the Gulf Coast, where the average price of unleaded is the lowest in the country at $2.97.
As for individual states, Minnesota had the only fuel price decrease of the week, where prices dropped by $.01/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $3.13/gallon. California again has the highest fuel prices in the country where the average price for a gallon of unleaded is $3.39, up three cents from last week.
Chicago was hit with the highest fuel price increase in the country, where the price of unleaded rose seven cents to $3.31/gallon. Los Angelese and San Francisco were the only two cities with prices above $3.40/gallon, both reporting an average price of unleaded at $3.41/gallon.
