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The oil patch is rallying today being led by refined products. This is due to the fact that Hurricane Sally has left a trail of “catastrophic” rainfall in Alabama earlier this week and is now barreling through the Carolinas and is hindering supply at petroleum terminals.

The most recent WTI drop of 2.9% is the largest in a month. Supply versus demand continues to be a curious topic that is the main driver of the current crude oil situation.   Oversupply of crude oil in 2020 continues as just in the past few days in the North Sea there are a combined 12 cargoes that have yet to find a buyer suggesting slow demand is taking place in the region.  

Prices in the oil sector are under pressure today prompted by a gigantic build in distillate inventories last week as reported in today’s Department of Energy (DOE) petroleum report.

Over the past few months, there has been a lot of negativity in the global fuels market.  The price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic are at the top of the list when it comes to driving crude oil prices to historic lows.  However, recently there has been some small and simple actions that show signs of turnaround in a positive direction in the crude market. The Texas Railroad commission, production cuts, relaxing of local travel restrictions, and construction resuming, will all have a positive influence on the oil market.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator, Andrew Wheeler recently said that he anticipates the new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards rule to be finalized within the next month or two.  The primary questions to answer at this point are, what does the rule seek to accomplish and how does this affect heavy-duty trucks?