Skip to main content

Gas and Oil

Gas and Oil

Posted: 01 Dec 2009 06:36 PM PST

Might be worth noting that last paragraph on heating oil pricing, if you are a user...

Not much change in the markets this week
Gasoline up because of low refiner capacity

Media release

Conception Bay South, NL, December 01, 2009- Low refiner capacity utilization has resulted in only a slight increase to come for gasoline prices when the Public Utilities Board moves to set prices this coming Thursday. That's according to George Murphy of the Consumer Group for Fair Gas Prices.

"It has been rather boring watching the markets this week, especially with no changes in some of the numbers that are readily apparent, with the exception of gasoline numbers," said Murphy. "Numbers show only slight changes to heating and stove oils with those fuels down by 45/100ths of a cent. Diesel shows a very modest 2/10ths of a cent drop and gasoline shows a 1.1 cent a litre increase coming."

"Low refiner capacity that sits at an almost historic low of 80 per cent is telling me that refiners are struggling to balance demand with supply. It appears to be a concerted move on the part of Big Oil to keep production down in the hope that demand will pick up, helping to support the price of the refined product. It appears that the move may be working. While demand is just half of a percentage point above last years figures, there was a small build in gasoline inventory last week leaving inventory there above that of last year by almost ten million barrels."

"The distillate outlook, heating, stove and diesel prices, are showing mostly the same trend. Inventories there were impacted by just five hundred thousand barrels leaving inventories over last year up by 40 million barrels. That could spell better news for distillate fuel users if that trend keeps up. Higher than usual distillate inventories matched with lower demand this last week could carry through until springtime lessening the probability of higher heating oil prices and saving the consumer some grief. I'm hopeful that that trend will continue and help push prices down even more, or at least not increase prices to the extent first brought forward."

-30-

For more information, contact;

George Murphy
Group researcher

Popular posts from this blog

Vertical Lube Oil Pumps (Model VCRE)

Lube oil pumping applications demand a pump that provides reliability and extended service life with a minimum of maintenance. The typical Lube Oil pump must also be capable of operation over a wide range of temperature and liquid viscosity conditions. The VCRE family of pumps is designed specifically with these requirements in mind. The VCRE lube oil pump is a vertically submerged pump that utilizes an ANSI standard hydraulic construction, enclosed bearing housing, and welded piping construction which eliminates the inherent maintenance and leakage problems associated with other pumps. During operation, axial and radial thrust loads are controlled by Buffalo’s exclusive modified casing volute and impeller design.  is backed by extensive field-proven experience in designing pumps to handle any lube oil application. This experience also provides flexibility in assisting OEM’s contractors and end-users in designing a sound instal...
Read more

Motorcycle Shaft Drive Grease

General Purpose Grease Grease has several uses on a motorcycle. It's there to protect parts from water, to keep rubber and plastic seals from drying out, and to provide lubrication. Generally speaking, grease is just a reduced fat. In fact, you can find several companies who call their grease bases "soap." The choice for a general purpose grease to protect from water, keep seals moist, and provide lubrication is easy. If you're going to do your own maintenance, I recommend you get Mobil-1 or Valvoline synthetic grease for general purposes, about $6 / pound anywhere. This stuff can handle temperatures higher and lower than you'll ever get near. A one pound jar should last you about 15 years. Shaft Drive Gear Maintenance There are two types of maintenance you must do on a shaft drive bike. At your rear wheel there are pinion gears where the spinning drive shaft motion is turned 90 degrees into the rear wheel motion. These gears are bathed in oil which much be c...
Read more

Understanding Ferrous Density

As part of my job, I regularly present oil analysis training seminars. One of the tests we discuss is ferrous density. I find that this test is seldom well understood, and, probably as a result, is seldom used. Explanation of the Test Ferrous density is the density of ferrous, or more correctly, of ferromagnetic particles distributed in the oil. The other ferromagnetic elements that one might encounter in lubricated components are nickel and cobalt, but in practice, these elements are likely to be present only in comparatively small quantities. Therefore, we are effectively measuring the concentration of magnetic steel alloys. There is no single way to conduct a ferrous density analysis. There are many ways of performing this rather essential test. Perhaps the two most common are the direct-reading ferrography, a technique which uses light blockage analysis of material deposited on a glass slide; and electromagnetic induction, which measures the voltage induced in a current-carrying ...
Read more