AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 1/5/18

“OPEC may be trumpeting success as inventories close their gap to the most recent five-year average,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA. “It has progressed, but OPEC is not out of the woods. The stock-draws are not enough to reverse the large builds in oil inventories that we saw between 2014 and 2016.” U.S. crude output rose by 46,000 barrels a day to 9.55 million a day, according to a report Wednesday by the EIA. That’s the highest level in a month. Gasoline stockpiles fell for a second week to 212.8 million barrels, the lowest level since August 2015. Click Read More below for additional information.

“The API numbers did surprise, and I would be even more surprised to see them being repeated,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank A/S. “We have reached a price level with which even OPEC is likely to be satisfied. I’m not sure whether Russia would like to play ball for such an extended period especially into the peak demand season.” Gasoline stocks rose by 1.47 million barrels and distillates fell by 4.53 million barrels last week, the API reported Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the data. U.S. crude inventories probably rose by 3.1 million barrels, according to the Bloomberg survey before an Energy Information Administration report. Click Read More below for more of the story.

FreightWaves CEO Craig Fuller calls the truck driver shortage a “myth” in a recent piece of self-promotion, but his assertion collapses under the weight of facts and data. Fuller claims the mythical shortage is an ATA fabrication—a narrative perpetuated for our convenience. Of course, we’re not alone in reporting this issue. Driver shortages are global in scope, with growing vacancies felt across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and documented in IRU’s 2022 Global Driver Shortage Report: In Europe, driver shortages jumped by 42% from 2020 to 2021, with vacant driver positions reaching 71,000 in Romania, 80,000 in both Poland and Germany, and 100,000 in the UK. In Mexico, shortages rose by 30% to reach 54,000, while in China, they increased by 140%, reaching 1.8 million.