AAA Fuel Gauge Report

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.

Prices are being affected by “a bullish oil-inventory report” from the U.S., said Michael Poulsen, an analyst at Global Risk Management Ltd. U.S. storage dropped by 4.62 million barrels to 425.3 million barrels last week, while outbound shipments of crude expanded to a record, according to an Energy Information Administration report Wednesday. The EIA data also showed that American oil production rose to an unprecedented 10.5 million barrels a day, topping the 10 million-barrel level for a ninth week. Global markets from equities to oil recovered after investor optimism grew that the U.S. and China will step back from the brink of a trade war. Click Read More below for additional information.