What to expect
The crude oil benchmark in the US (WTI trading under futures contract ticker on NYMEX CL=F) closed trading last week at $83.17 per barrel, $2.54 more than compared to the previous week close (+3.15% increase). Today, futures for crude oil (CL=F) trades around $82.81 per barrel. We should expect crude to continue trading around the $80-$83 per barrel range for most of this week (assuming no major event that could bring about a shock in the market).
For local fuel prices, given dynamics at play we could continue to see prices rising for gasoline this week and diesel holding steady, which has seen some downtrending over past weeks. Over the last 90 days, diesel had an all time high of close to $3.60 per gallon whereas last week it was at around $3.32 (dropping almost 30 cents per gallon in about a month). Wholesale gasoline can be seen on a 90 days upwards trend where we expect it to reach close to $3.60 per gallon at the peak of the summer season.
Highlights
- Gasoline-diesel price relationship: Gasoline has crossed the mark and is now more expensive than diesel. From our last fuel report, wholesale diesel in PR was priced at $3.32 per gallon on average, whereas gasoline was priced on average at $3.40 oer gallon.
- Gasoline could continue to rise: Patrick De Haan, Gasbuddy's head of petroleum analysis, shares his views on gasoline price trends:
Yeah, I don't think we'll quite get to $4. Yeah, maybe 3.60 to 3.90 a gallon, somewhere there. I mean, oil prices have been rising in the background too. That's something that we'll have to keep an eye on here over the next couple of months. OPEC maintaining a very delicate balance of production driving oil up to $82 to $83 a barrel. But I think we're going to stop short for now. There could be a caveat or hurricane, an additional geopolitical strife that we may have to concern with that could eventually push prices to $4. But I think that's going to be the exception if it does happen this summer, not the norm.
Crude Oil Benchmarks
