The Energy Information Administration reports that for the second week in a row, the average price for regular gasoline increased in all major regions of the country, with the national average increasing nearly a nickel to $2.70 per gallon. The U.S. average price was 77 cents above last year. The price on the West Coast (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) rose the most of any region, up seven cents to $2.94 per gallon. The price in California increased eight cents to $3.00 per gallon.
     The U.S. average price for diesel fuel moved up three cents to settle at $2.86 per gallon, 77 cents above a year ago. The West Coast price increased four cents to $2.96 per gallon as California also moved up four cents, to $3.02 per gallon.
     The earthquake in Chile last weekend paralyzed production at Chile's two major oil refineries and affected U.S. distillate prices somewhat, since the U.S. is a regular exporter of diesel to Chile with the Gulf Coast supplying ultra-low-sulfur diesel and the West Coast supplying high-sulfur diesel, according to the Oil Pricing Information Service. The U.S. oil market reacted bullishly early on Monday to the Chilean demand news before giving back the early gains to settle lower.
     In the U.S., inventories rose 4.1 million barrels, according to this week's Department of Energy report. The 341.6 million barrels of crude stocks are well above the average range for this time of year.
     The increased crude inventories come in tandem with increased refinery utilization. Refineries nationwide were operating at 81.9% last week, up 0.7% from the prior week. Typically that would cause crude stocks to decrease with more crude needed for refinery input.
     Last week also saw 9 million barrels per day of crude imported into the U.S. -- the first time since September that back-to-back crude imports have seen above 9 million barrels per day. Normally, that would have pushed crude prices and the rest of the complex lower. However, domestic crude seemed shrugged off the stock gains and rose higher. Crude oil settled at $80.87 per barrel, up $1.19 per barrel. That's the highest settle since Jan. 11.

Chris Nobles
Commercial Fueling
NELLA Oil Company