Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 1/13/23

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.290; Month Ago: $3.380; Year Ago: $3.301. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $4.677; Month Ago: $5.058; Year Ago: $3.575.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures both slipped after the U.S. benchmark rose 2.7 percent on Tuesday, breaching $60 a barrel for the first time since June 2015. A pipeline run by Waha Oil Company that carries crude to Libya’s Es Sider terminal exploded Tuesday, reducing output by 70,000-100,000 barrels a day. The repair work will take about a week, according to people familiar with the situation. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is said to expect oil revenue to jump about 80 percent by 2023 to help the kingdom record its first budget surplus in a decade. “The market is having a counter-reaction to the jump yesterday,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “It remains supported by the news out of Libya but at the same time liquidity is very poor.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Gasoline surged to the highest in two years and oil declined as flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey inundated refining centers along the Texas coast, shutting more than 10 percent of U.S. fuel-making capacity. Motor fuel prices rose as much as 6.8 percent, while New York oil futures slipped 0.9 percent. Harvey, the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since 2004, made landfall as a hurricane Friday, flooding cities and shutting plants able to process some 2.26 million barrels of oil a day. Pipelines were closed, potentially stranding crude in West Texas and interrupting gasoline supply. Click Read More below for more of the story.