PS Energy Group Newsletter

800-334-7548
August 16, 2012
PS Energy Group Newsletter
About PS Energy Group, Inc.
Founded in 1985 by Livia
Whisenhunt, PS Energy Group,
Inc. is a privately-­‐owned
Atlanta-­‐based company. As one
of the naGon's top
diversity-­‐owned businesses, PS
Energy provides transportaGon
fuels, emergency fueling, and
fleet management services, including etrac™, a wireless telemaGcs
soluGon that helps improve producGvity,
profitability, and the quality of the environment through beMer
asset monitoring and vehicle tracking. Lock in Your Fuel Prices
If you had locked in your fuel prices this morning,
these could be your fixed bulk prices*:
Unleaded Diesel
3 Months $2.8176 $3.1042 6 Months $2.7890 $3.1054 12 Months $2.8170 $3.0857
We can also help you fix your retail prices.
For more informaKon on locking in fuel prices for your company, call
Roger Murray at 800-­‐334-­‐7548.
Quick Links
PS Energy Website Etrac Wireless Website NOAA Energy.gov NYMEX
EIA
Weather
US OIL INVENTORIES SURVEY
Analysts See Drop in Oil Stocks
Published: Aug 14, 2012
By John M. Biers
U.S. oil inventory data are expected to
show crude-oil inventories fell last week,
while refiners trimmed operations,
according to a Dow Jones Newswires
survey of analysts.
Crude-oil inventories likely fell 1.9
million barrels in the week ended Friday,
according to an average of estimates
from nine analysts. Estimates ranged
from a decline of 3.5 million barrels to a
decline of 1 million barrels.
The closely watched government survey
from the Energy Information
Administration is due at 10:30 a.m. EDT
Wednesday. The American Petroleum
*These are representative base commodity costs for central U.S. delivery,
excluding taxes, delivery and execution charges, and require execution of a
contract and confirmation.
New Tropical Storm Forms in Atlantic
weather.com
Institute, an industry group, is scheduled
to release its survey at 4:30 p.m. EDT
Tuesday.
Gasoline inventories are projected to fall
by 1.7 million barrels. Eight analysts
projected a decline, while one expects
no change in inventories.
Stocks of distillates, a category that
includes heating oil and diesel, are
expected to fall by 500,000 barrels. Five
analysts forecast a decline, three
forecast a build, and one analyst
forecasts no change.
Refinery utilization is expected to fall
0.6 percentage point to 92% of capacity.
One analyst forecast greater utilization,
five forecast lower utilization and three
analysts forecast either no change or
didn't offer an estimate.
Analyst Crude Gasoline Distillates
Refinery Use
Again Capital -2.7 -1.1 -1.9 -0.8
Citi Futures -1.5 -2.5 unch -1
Confluence Investment -1 -2.5 0.5 0.3
IAF Advisors -1 unch 1 N/A
Oil Outlooks -2 -2.25 -1 -0.75
Price Futures Group -3.5 -3 -3 -2
Ritterbusch & Assoc -3 -1 1.5 -0.6
Summit Energy -1.5 -0.5 -0.25 unch
Tradition Energy -1 -2 -0.5 unch
Tropical Storm Gordon has formed in the central AtlanKc Ocean to the
east of Bermuda.
Average -1.9 -1.7 -0.4 -0.6
Figures in millions of barrels except for
Gordon is no threat to the United States and is forecast to become
refining use, which is reported in
the third hurricane of the season as it heads northward and
percentage points. For analysts providing
eventually northeastward across the north AtlanKc. The system could forecasts in a range, the average of the
upper and lower ends of the range is
affect the Azores late in the weekend or early next week.
used.
View more expert analysis from Senior Meteorologist Stu Ostro at our Dan Strumpf contributed to this article
Tropical Update arKcle at this link.
Copyright Dow Jones
DJ OIL FUTURES
Drought Rises in Historical Rankings
Nick Wiltgen, weather.com
Crude Sheds Losses After U.S.
Inventory Report
The 2012 drought disaster conKnued to expand and deepen in July,
placing it among the six largest droughts in modern record keeping,
according to a monthly drought report to be released Wednesday by
the NaKonal ClimaKc Data Center.
Based on data from the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), 57.2%
of the conKguous 48 states were in some sort of drought by the end
of July, a slight increase from the revised June figure of 55.2%. Since
modern records began in 1895, this year's drought is the fifh-­‐largest
Crude futures climb afer EIA
inventory report
EIA: U.S. oil stockpiles fell 3.7 million
barrels last week
Gasoline demand rises to 13-­‐month
high
in terms of areal expanse, up from sixth place last month. The last
drought to cover more territory was in 1956.
The intensity of the drought conKnued to worsen as well. The
percentage of the country in "severe" to "extreme" drought increased
from 32.7% in June to 37.6% in July.
In these more serious categories, the 2012 drought grew from the
10th-­‐largest on record in June to the sixth-­‐largest in July, but sKll trails
the 2002 drought in terms of the area covered in severe to extreme
drought.
The intensificaKon of the drought occurred as the country endured its
hohest July, and hohest month overall, in the 117-­‐year period of
modern weather staKsKcs.
The Palmer index numbers differ slightly from those in the U.S.
Drought Monitor report, last updated on Thursday, August 9. The
PDSI is just one of many inputs into the Drought Monitor analysis,
which takes into account variables and measurements from mulKple
government agencies.
(MORE: How To Conserve Water in a Drought)
While the drought news remains grim, there was a sliver of good
news in the first wave of NCDC's State of the Climate report, released
last week.
That report indicated that roughly equal areas of the country were
"very dry" or "very wet" in terms of rainfall in July -­‐ about 13% each.
This means about 13% of the country was in the top one-­‐tenth of its
historical range of July precipitaKon, and another 13% in the bohom
one-­‐tenth.
By comparison, 35% of the country was "very dry" in June and only
7% was "very wet," and the numbers were also lop-­‐sided (20% vs. 6%,
respecKvely) in May.
Midwest Drought Pushes Gas Prices Higher
weather.com & partners
NEW YORK -­‐-­‐ Gasoline prices in the United States
rose over the past two weeks, driven partly by
supply disrupKons and a drought-­‐induced rise in
ethanol prices, a widely followed survey showed
on Sunday.
The Lundberg Survey said the naKonal average
NEW YORK-­‐-­‐Oil futures turned
higher Wednesday afer a report
showed U.S. oil stockpiles fell more
than expected last week and
demand for refined fuels rose
sharply.
Light, sweet crude for September
delivery rose 37 cents, or 0.4%, to
$93.80 a barrel on the New York
MercanKle Exchange. Brent crude on
ICE Futures Europe rose 91 cents, or
0.8%, to $114.94 a barrel.
Futures shed their earlier losses
afer the U.S. Energy InformaKon
AdministraKon said oil stockpiles fell
3.7 million barrels last week. The
drop was well above the 1.9 million-­‐
barrel draw forecast by analysts
surveyed by Dow
Jones Newswires.
U.S. implied gasoline demand rose
5.3% last week to its highest level in
13 months.
The demand jump comes as a
surprise, said Phil Flynn, analyst at
Price Futures Group in Chicago,
because gasoline prices have been
climbing in recent weeks due to a
series of refinery outages.
"Maybe the economy is genng a
lihle bit beher and people are
feeling more confident," Mr. Flynn
said. He said it is also possible some
motorists had been
stocking up on gasoline ahead of
Hurricane Ernesto in the Gulf of
Mexico.
Gasoline inventories fell 2.4 million
barrels, while disKllate stocks rose
700,000 barrels, according to the
EIA. Refinery uKlizaKon remained
unchanged at 96.2% of capacity.
Analysts expected gasoline
price of self-­‐serve, regular gas was $3.69 on August 10, up from $3.51
on July 27.
Gasoline prices peaked this year at $3.967 a gallon on April 6. The
record high is $4.112 set on July 11, 2008.
(MORE: This Year's Drought is Bad, But '36 Was Misery | Check the
Interstate Forecast)
Trilby Lundberg, who conducts the survey of some 2,500 gas staKons
naKonwide, said the rise was partly the result of temporary supply
disrupKons at refineries and an increase in the cost of corn-­‐based
ethanol caused by a severe Midwestern drought.
U.S. law requires a certain amount of ethanol to be sold, and much of
it gets blended into gasoline, Lundberg said.
"Right now, its impact on gasoline is that it's adding to the cost," she
said. "It pales in comparison to the impact of crude on gasoline, but
it's among the non-­‐crude items that has pushed up the price lately."
U.S. benchmark West Texas crude ended the week higher on Friday,
sehling at $92.87 a barrel. That price had been as high as $110.55 as
recently as March 1.
It is up about 5.5 percent so far in August, afer rising 3.6 percent in
July.
Benchmark December corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade are
up 60 percent since mid-­‐June.
PS Energy Emergency
stockpiles would fall a smaller 1.7
million barrels last week, while
disKllate stocks were seen falling
400,000 barrels. Refinery uKlizaKon
was expected to drop 0.6 percentage
point to 92% of capacity.
Nymex crude futures were lower in
morning trading afer the American
Petroleum InsKtute, an industry
group, said its own report showed
U.S. oil stockpiles last week
unexpectedly rose 2.8 million
barrels.
Brent crude, the European
benchmark, clung to posiKve
territory amid producKon problems
in the North Sea. Declining
producKon in the North Sea,
Brent's source, has bedeviled the
benchmark for years. But recently a
strike by oil workers in Norway and
heavy maintenance at North Sea
fields have further Kghtened the
market.
In recent days, Brent's premium to
the Nymex benchmark has risen to
above $21 a barrel, its widest level
since last October. The so-­‐called
Brent-­‐WTI spread had been
Fueling Program
narrowing for much of this year, as
new pipelines came online in the
central U.S. aimed at easing a
In 1995, PS Energy developed an
crude-­‐oil surplus that has weighed
Emergency Fueling Program
on the price of Nymex crude.
designed specifically for the
uKlity industry. This first-­‐
"We have been emphasizing the
of-­‐its-­‐kind program
importance of a Kghtening Brent
incorporated the design of
market as the primary driver of
equipment and strategies to be higher oil values across the board
used for emergency deployment this month," said Jim Riherbusch,
head of the trading advisory firm
in power interrupKon due to
Riherbusch & Associates, in a
hurricances, tornadoes, ice
research report.
storms, or other natural
disasters. This Emergency
Front-­‐month September
Fueling Program now provides
reformulated gasoline blendstock, or
fueling services naKonwide to
RBOB, recently rose 2.01 cents, or
industry and uKliKes, in Kmes of crisis or whenever natural
disasters strike.
To learn more about our three disKnct levels of Emergency
Fueling Programs, contact Roger Murray at 770-­‐350-­‐3000 or
[email protected]
PS Energy Fleet Fuel Card Program
0.7%, to $3.0215 a gallon.
September heaKng oil rose 1.14
cent, or 0.4%, to $3.0460 a gallon.
Write to Dan Strumpf at
[email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 15, 2012 11:17 ET (15:17
GMT)
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones &
Company, Inc. PS Energy has formed partnerships with Wright Express,
Voyager, and Comdata -­‐ first Ker card vendors accepted at
over 99% of all fueling locaKons naKonwide. These fleet
fueling cards allow for control at the card level, as well as
the account level, giving fleet managers the ability to
manage retail purchases more efficiently.
etrac Wireless Monitoring
PS Energy has combined its 25
years of Fuel Management
experKse with Wireless
Technologies to create Remote
Monitoring SoluKons that provide
real Kme, cost-­‐effecKve
management tools. PS Energy's
web portal, combined with its
Wireless Enterprise SoluKons
provides anyKme, anywhere,
fueling data access to its clients.
Diversity
This communication is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or
sale of any financial instrument or as an official confirmation of any transaction. All market prices, data, and other
information are not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and are subject to change without notice. Any price
information is not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and is subject to change without notice. Any price
statements made herein do not necessarily reflect those of PS Energy Group or its affiliates. Accordingly, PS Energy
Group or its affiliates shall have no liability to you whether such liability arises in contract, tort or statute for any costs,
losses, expenses, damages whether arising or incurred directly or indirectly by you placing reliance on any
information contained within this communication.
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWSLETTER IS CONSIDERED CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY
AND SHOULD NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF PS ENERGY GROUP, INC.