AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 4/21/23

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.110; Month Ago: $3.043; Year Ago: $3.141. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $3.663; Month Ago: $3.506; Year Ago: $3.935.

While oil investors are grappling with geopolitical risks, the potential impact of tensions in the Middle East is uncertain, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Tuesday. While the conflict between Iraq’s central government and the semi-autonomous Kurds cut crude flows through a Turkish pipeline, the disruption may be short lived. Meanwhile, OPEC sent its strongest signal yet that its output cuts will be extended until the end of 2018. The flow rate through the pipeline from Kurdish region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan was about 200,000 barrels a day, according to a port agent report. That was unchanged from Thursday, but down from about 600,000 barrels a day before the conflict began. U.S. gasoline inventories expanded by 908,000 barrels last week, while distillate supplies climbed by 528,000 barrels to 134.5 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration. Crude stockpiles declined for a fourth week, down by 5.731 million barrels to 456.5 million barrels, the data showed. Click Read More below for additional information.

Motor fuel prices fell 0.7 percent in New York, while crude futures slipped from the lowest closing level in five weeks. Valero Energy Corp. and Citgo Petroleum Corp. were said to be preparing to restart their refineries in Corpus Christi after Harvey moved through over the weekend. The storm, which made landfall on Friday, is poised to regain strength before crashing ashore again near the Texas-Louisiana border on Wednesday. “It is a question of the market reassessing the risk to refineries while also concluding we are past the peak season in terms of demand,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “We are seasonally heading towards a lower demand period which means that any signs of things beginning to normalize could have quite a negative impact on prices.” Click Read More below for additional detail.