Key Currency Exchange Rates for Friday, 12/1/23

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.556; Month Ago: $2.465; Year Ago: $2.148. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $2.837; Month Ago: $2.724; Year Ago: $2.393.

Futures in New York rose as much as 0.6 percent after adding 2.5 percent in the past three sessions. An industry report showed U.S. inventories fell last week, with government data Wednesday forecast to show a fourth straight drop. Crude’s recent gains have been driven by fighting between the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces in the oil-rich Kirkuk region, which could stoke tensions beyond the country’s borders. Iraq is just one of the oil market’s geopolitical risks, with uncertainty also growing over tensions between Iran and the U.S., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Tuesday. The Persian Gulf nation said it would support an extension of OPEC output cuts to the end of 2018 and insisted its production plans won’t be disrupted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s disavowal of the nuclear deal that’s boosted its exports. Click Read More below for additional information.

UPM Energy answers to the urgent need for power flexibility with a revolutionary energy optimisation and trading service, Beyond Spot, helping industrial businesses thrive in the energy market disruption. The service helps industrial companies solve the most common pain points of energy management: energy cost optimisation and risk management. At the same time, it answers the growing need for flexible power to balance the power grid due to the fast increase in the supply of renewable energy. The energy market is in the middle of disruption. Tightening climate goals push countries to shift towards renewable energy, which pushes the power prices down and shakes up the market dynamics. The increase in renewable energy creates dramatic fluctuations in energy supply, posing significant financial risks for large energy consumers and causing new challenges for electricity grids. In order to cope with the volatile renewable energy supply, investments in electricity grids are required, but part of the solution lies in more efficient use of flexible consumption assets through energy optimisation. Regulators and transmission system operators also aim for better balancing of supply and demand with the help of new regulation such as the fifteen-minute imbalance settlement coming in 2023 in the Nordics.