Gas Prices Up, Crude Down, Refinery Problems Cited

The prices of crude and gasoline futures moved in opposite directions Thursday, as the former slumped to a one-week low on weaker forecast demand stemming from refinery problems, which in turn helped push gasoline higher due to declining inventories. NYMEX July crude futures lost 2.4% to $64.18, while June gasoline rose 2.0% to $2.36 a gallon. "A series of unplanned operational problems and prolonged scheduled maintenance on refineries amid strong demand have depleted gasoline inventories and caused pump prices to rise to record highs around the country," explains The Wall Street Journal in its Commodities section. The average price for unleaded gasoline in the U.S. rose to $3.227 a gallon Thursday, an all-time high and less then seven cents from an inflation-adjusted record high. Thursday's sector decliners include: Frontier Oil -2.2% to $37.13, Sunoco -2.1% to $76.70, ConocoPhillips -2.0% to $75.19, Chevron -1.8% to $79.97, Valero -1.8% to $73.15 and Exxon Mobil -0.9% to $82.28.

Sources: MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal
Commentary: Energy Stock Trader: Thursday Outlook • Gasoline Price Reaches All-Time High, Above $3.20 Per Gallon • XTO Energy: Best Track Record In Energy Stocks • US Oil Fund ETF Fails Investors Consistently
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Alon USA Energy (ALJ), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Exxon Mobile (XOM), Frontier Oil (FTO), Sunoco (SUN), Tesoro Petroleum (TSO) and Valero (VLO). ETFs: United States Oil Fund ETF (USO), Barclays Bank Zero Cpn ETN (OIL), Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE)
Related: AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report

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Comments

[info]

yes you check out the what the oil futures are doing right now charts and quotes: oilgasfutures.com
looks like we're coming into the volatile summer season, for those interested there is a great just released study on saudi arabia and gas prices by stuart staniford here: www.theoildrum.com/nod... it goes into great detail on what is really going on over there, it looks like the saudi oil fields are depleting --from the satellite photos it gives the impression that they may be getting desperate over there, anyway----excellent work worth a look! ----Patrick Kerr Oil Gas Futures

[Frank Li]

Note that this is bad news for Iran, an exporter of crude and importer of refined gasoline. (Data on Iran's crude exports and gasoline imports at energy.seekingalpha.co....) Wonder what the knock-on effects of that will be.

One other point: interesting how similar this is to the gap that's opened between some of the gold mining stocks and the gold ETF. When there are production problems, the commodity can go up in price (in this case gasoline) but the producers' stocks fall. Pity there's no refined gasoline ETF, only a crude oil ETF.