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Lundberg in CSPdailynews.com

 
CSP, Nov 11, 2024:
Juxtaposing Margins
Refiners gain, retailers lose

CSP, Oct 28, 2024:
Oil Prices Dropped on Calmer Middle East Nerves
Half the wholesale gasoline price cut fed retail margin

CSP, October 14, 2024:
Crude Oil’s Nerves: Is a Huge Price Hike Coming?
U.S. downstream margins suffer big setbacks

CSP, September 30, 2024:
Battered by Headlines, Oil Displays Some Inertia
Downstreamers lose, consumers gain

CSP, September 16, 2024:
Led by Crude Oil and Weak U.S. Employment, Gasoline Price Crash Continues
Retail diesel fuel prices also have been dropping

CSP, August 26, 2024:
Pump Price Help for Motorists, With Summer Ending Soon
Retail margin improves


 
CSP, Nov 11, 2024:
Juxtaposing Margins
Refiners gain, retailers lose

November 11, 2024 CSPDailyNews.com Article:
U.S. refiners have gained gasoline margin, just moderately, as oil prices fell a bit, but racks trended up. Retailers lost more than 6 cents per gallon (CPG) on regular grade, putting margin at a lackluster 34.77 cents, according to the most recent Lundberg Survey of U.S. fuel markets. That loss was nearly as great as the gain they made during the prior two-week period.

There was yet another retail price decline, this time 4.12 cents, to $3.1529. It happens that crude oil, the average price of the world's two main benchmark grades—West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent—dropped by 3.1-CPG equivalent during the period, to $70.48. Oil prices have been comparatively stable of late, as if the current but perhaps illusory Middle East calm were being approximately offset by weak oil demand in China.

Similarly, the U.S. gasoline market can be described as calm for now. Although gasoline stocks are notably meager, our demand continues its seasonal march down towards the trough month, January.

Apart from extreme weather events that can take out oil industry facilities including refining capacity, thankfully not including the latest hurricane, Rafael, a serious risk is worsening regulatory moves, most dramatically in California. The state is losing a major refinery to poor economics and may possibly lose more of them as Sacramento tightens the screws to engineer higher gasoline price for sake of quashing consumption, which Sacramento maintains causes danger to climate. The same drivers that are worsening risk to refining in California are at work elsewhere around the country.

For now, mediocre downstream margins persist.

Here are cent retail margin changes around the country: Boston was one of the losers, with retail prices continuing down-drift of 4.2 cents, thereby cutting margin by 6.7 cents. Chicago lost big. Wholesale fell by 1.79 cents on average, while retail down-corrected by 14.88 cents, costing retailers 11.72 CPG in margin. Margin erosion nearly that great occurred in Philadelphia. Tulsa's average margin gained slightly, just 2.6 cents, to 21.92 cents on average..

Click here for previous Lundberg Survey reports in CSP Daily News.

Trilby Lundberg is publisher of the Lundberg Survey of U.S. fuel markets. Lundberg Survey Inc. is based in Camarillo, California.
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