Gasoline NEWS

Democrats are so nervous about November's election that they just wasted a morning in the House Energy and Commerce Committee trying to scapegoat the oil industry for the high price of gasoline.

State fuel retailers posted robust growth in gasoline and gasoil sales in the first half of March, preliminary fuel sales data showed on Wednesday, as consumers and dealers topped tanks ahead on likelihood of a fuel price hike after March 10.

Fuel prices rose for the second straight week as global oil prices remained bullish after fears of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus waned. In separate advisories, major oil industry players raised gasoline and diesel prices by P0.55 per liter, while kerosene prices went up by P0.70 per liter on Tuesday. But Phoenix Petroleum and Seaoil Corp. said they would not raise prices in areas battered by Typhoon “Odette.” Seaoil will also implement a discount promo from Dec. 20 to Dec. 31, which will give consumers a P4 per liter discount on gasoline and P2 per liter discount on diesel.

Crude oil prices recovered somewhat on Wednesday morning after the Energy Information Administration reported an inventory draw of 4.6 million barrels for the week to December 10. At 428.3 million barrels, crude oil inventories remain 7% below the five-year average. Last week’s draw compares with a modest 200,000-barrel decline in crude oil inventories for the previous week. On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute estimated a crude oil inventory draw of 815,000 barrels for the week to December 10. In fuels, the agency reported draws.

The United States uses more gasoline than any other nation in the world, and lately Americans have grown concerned about the swift rise in costs at the pump. The White House on Tuesday, November 23, announced plans to release millions of barrels of oil from strategic reserves in coordination with other nations in hopes of lowering costs.

Americans could soon see relief at the pump as U.S. gasoline prices are set to decline if the drop in crude oil prices holds, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-savings platform GasBuddy, said on Friday.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a small inventory build in crude oil that was just enough to keep the market from panicking over dwindling inventories. This week, the API estimated the inventory build for crude oil to be 655,000 barrels. U.S. crude inventories are now 60 million barrels below where they were at the beginning of the year. Analyst expectations for the week were for a build of 1.550-million barrels for the week. In the previous week, the API reported a draw in oil inventories of 2.485-million barrels, compared to the 1.90-million-barrel build that analysts had predicted.

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose to a two-week high on Tuesday after the United States lifted travel restrictions and other signs of a global post-pandemic recovery boosted the demand outlook, while supply remained tight.

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's lower house of Congress on Wednesday approved changes to existing legislation that could allow the government to revoke private oil companies' permits to import gasoline and other fuels.The initiative, part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's efforts to strengthen state influence over the energy market at the expense of private capital, passed with 292 votes in favor, 153 votes against and 11 abstentions.

A source close to the Indonesian oil giant, Pertamina revealed that the company has kept the August import quota of gasoline to about 10 million barrels, unchanged from July. The company is facing problems in achieving target prices and recently canceled a tender that necessitated 500,000 barrels of 92 RON gasoline. Pertamina has sought a total volume of 1.3 million barrels of gasoline for August loading and delivery.

Fluor Corp has reported completion of substantial engineering for Marathon Petroleum’s Tier 3 gasoline sulfur standard reconfiguration project at the Galveston Bay refinery. Fluor is offering engineering, procurement and construction management services for the Texas refinery to achieve newly-formulated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier 3 gasoline sulfur norms, by 2020.

India’s top oil refiner, Indian Oil, has developed its own refining processes using catalysts and hydro-cracking for converting crude oil into fuels like gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas. This move may help the firm save at least $1.5 billion in terms of cost. The director of research and development at Indian Oil believes that the firm will soon turn into a technology provider in near future and would not have to be at the mercy of a few multinational suppliers.