by John Keller | Jul 2, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
July 1, 2010 – According to the latest edition of the US Energy Information Administration’s “This week in petroleum” report, the average retail fuel price for regular gasoline rose for the second straight week as of June 28th. Current retail gasoline prices are above their year-ago level, but lower than prices during the same period in 2008, 2007, and 2006.
For the second week in a row, the U.S. average fuel price for regular gasoline increased, moving up more than a penny to settle at $2.76 per gallon, $0.12 higher than last year. With the exception of the Rocky Mountains, average fuel prices increased in all other regions of the country. The average on the East Coast went up a penny to $2.70 per gallon. The increases in the Midwest and on the Gulf Coast amounted to a bit less than two cents, taking the prices to $2.73 per gallon and $2.61 per gallon, respectively. The Rocky Mountain price slipped a half cent but remained essentially unchanged at $2.77 per gallon. The West Coast average climbed the most of any major region, moving up over two cents to $3.06 per gallon. The average in California moved up nearly three cents to $3.13 per gallon.
From the supplier point of view, the US EIA expects gasoline retail fuel margins to remain moderate, with gasoline demand showing slight growth in 2010. This implies that retail prices are likely to average under $3 per gallon this summer barring unexpected events.
by John Keller | Jun 25, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
A survey by travel organization AAA projects that the number of Americans traveling over the holiday weekend will increase 17.1 percent from 2009, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune. The survey projects 34.9 million travelers will take a trip at least 50 miles away from home sometime between July 1 and July 5.
Roughly 90 percent of travelers, or 31.4 million people, are expected to travel by car, up almost 18 percent from the number in 2009.
Though traveling may be up, the AAA survey also found that median spending by travelers is estimated to be $644 this holiday weekend, nearly $50 less than last year.
by John Keller | Jun 9, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Retail Fuel Margins
In the June 8, 2010 edition of the US Energy Information Administration’s monthly “Short-Term Energy Outlook”, the EIA revised their forecast for summer unleaded retail fuel price national averages down $.15 per gallon. The EIA now projects the national average fuel price for unleaded will be $2.79 per gallon for the summer 2010 driving season that lasts through September 30. The summer gasoline price forecast is down primarily as a result of the lower crude oil price forecast. The average price in the summer of 2009 was $2.44 per gallon.
This downward projection is despite the estimates of reductions in production resulting from a 6-month deepwater drilling moratorium announced by Secretary Salazar in May. The reductions in crude oil production resulting from the moratorium are estimated to average about 26,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in the fourth quarter of 2010 and roughly 70,000 bbl/d in 2011.
EIA projects crude oil prices will average about $79 per barrel over the second half of this year and rise to $84 by the end of next year.
EIA projects that OPEC, which did not change its production targets at its March meeting, will keep its crude oil production largely unchanged for the remainder of 2010. The countries that have the bulk of OPEC ‘s spare capacity – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates – have maintained their quota discipline at current levels for an extended period and are expected to continue doing so barring significant changes in the world oil market outlook.
by John Keller | Jun 9, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
Today the US Energy Information Administration announced that US national average fuel prices were essentially unchanged this week. In their “This Week In Petroleum” report, the EIA announced that fuel price increases in the Midwest and on the West Coast offset price decreases in the East, Gulf Coast, and Rocky Mountains.
This week US national averages dipped less than half a cent, remaining essentially unchanged at $2.73 per gallon. The price was a dime higher than last year at this time. Price changes were mixed, with the East Coast seeing the largest regional decrease, of nearly four cents, to $2.69 per gallon. The averages on the Gulf Coast and in the Rocky Mountains declined about three cents to $2.61 per gallon and $2.79 per gallon, respectively. Moving up three and a half cents, the average in the Midwest reached $2.66 per gallon. The West Coast price rose three cents to $3.01 per gallon, while the average in California increased over four cents to settle at $3.07 per gallon.
Now we all wait to see the what impact hurricane season will have on fuel prices this summer. August and September are typically the most common for hurricanes in the US. In 2008 fuel prices were impacted dramatically by hurricanes, and according to EIA software simulations, the likelihood of experiencing disruptions similar to the 2008 hurricane season (outages of 65 million barrels) or worse is estimated to be 17 percent during the upcoming season, which is quite a bit higher than the probability expected during a normal season (5 percent).
by John Keller | May 26, 2010 | Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
In the 5/26/2010 edition of “This Week in Petroleum” released by the US Energy Information Administration, the U.S. average price for regular gasoline this week dropped almost 8 cents to $2.79 per gallon. The national average price for diesel fuel fell 7 cents to $3.02 per gallon.
This drop in regular gasoline is the largest weekly decrease since July 13, 2009. The diesel weekly decrease is the largest since December 15, 2008.
Prices for both regular gasoline and diesel fell in all areas of the country; the largest drop occurred in the Midwest and the smallest drop was in the Rocky Mountains. On the East Coast the weekly drop was $.07 for both regular gas and diesel, and in California regular gas dropped $.07 while diesel dropped $.08.
The national average price for regular gasoline is $0.35 higher than last year at this time while diesel is $0.75 higher than last year.
by John Keller | May 20, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
The Associated Press continues to set consumer expectations that they can expect to pay less at the pump this summer then the summer of 2009.
Highlights of the article:
“Prices for heating oil, gasoline and Brent crude all dropped by at least 3 percent. “People are saying it’s time to get out,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. Earlier this year, Lynch stood out from many of his peers by predicting that oil prices would fall. “The market has gotten way ahead of itself,” Lynch said. “People kept saying that soon demand will go up and inventories will go down. But that’s not happening.”
“Traders started getting nervous as the debt crisis unfolded in Europe. U.S. government data showing that Americans continue to have a relatively weak appetite for fuel have sunk energy prices even further.”
“If the world doesn’t start sopping up excess supplies, oil prices may fall into the $40-per-barrel range this year, Lynch said.”
“At the pump, retail gasoline prices dropped 1.2 cents overnight to a new national average of $2.84 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 1.9 cents cheaper than it was a month ago, but it’s 50.6 cents more expensive than a year ago. Experts say gas prices have likely peaked already this year, and it should cost less to fill up this summer than in the summer of 2009. That’s good news for the travel industry as Americans get ready to hit the highways over the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer driving season.
The full AP article can be read here.
