AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 7/31/20

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.957; Month Ago: $2.811; Year Ago: $2.381. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $3.213; Month Ago: $3.067; Year Ago: $2.513.

Oil is struggling to regain the highs of January after a sell-off in global equities seeped into crude markets earlier this month. Surging U.S. production continues to challenge efforts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its friends to alleviate a global oversupply, with forecasts pointing to record output from the Permian shale basin. “Prices are vulnerable to the downside over the coming months,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS Group AG in Zurich. “Though the market likes OPEC and its allies’ show of unity, we still need to see how U.S. shale companies will react on higher prices and eventually offset all the efforts of OPEC and others to reduce inventories.” The increase in U.S. production is not “a blip,” Brouillette said. “We are optimistic about 2019 and 2020 too.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Futures added 1.5 percent in New York. China’s crude imports last month jumped to the second-highest on record, customs data show, while U.S. government data on Thursday showed crude inventories fell by 2.75 million barrels last week. OPEC is said to expect a global oil glut will be gone a year from now. President Donald Trump is expected on Friday to disavow a deal with Iran that helped revive its oil exports, while stopping short of abandoning it. Oil has rebounded from the biggest weekly loss since May on signs that output cuts led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are draining a surplus. OPEC expects the effort to succeed by the end of the third quarter of next year, said people familiar with the group’s internal forecasts. The prediction assumes that production in Libya and Nigeria will remain at current levels and U.S. shale output will expand by no more than 500,000 barrels a day next year, two people familiar with the matter said. Click Read More below for additional information.