AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 4/27/18

West Texas Intermediate futures were little changed after dropping 2.1 percent to a one-week low on Monday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 32.83 million barrels a day in September, up 120,000 barrels a day from August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Libyan production is set to recover from a five-month low as the nation’s biggest field restarts following a brief halt. “With news of Libyan output looking to recover back to the 1 million-barrel-a-day level, oil bulls need to hold out for another bout of news on geopolitics,” said Jens Naervig Pedersen, senior analyst at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Futures in New York slid 2.3 percent. Declines in the equity market, a rising dollar and concern that Trump’s tariff threats will spark a trade war acted as a downward force on crude oil. And at the same time, the Energy Information Administration reported American crude inventories rose by 2.41 million barrels last week, while production jumped to a fresh record. The EIA report also showed gasoline supplies declined for the first time since January and distillate inventories fell for a fourth straight week. Stockpiles at the key U.S. storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma tumbled for an 11th week to the lowest since 2014. Crude inventories rose by 2.41 million barrels, lower than expectations. Click Read More below for additional information.

The American Trucking Associations praised the introduction of the Modern, Clean, and Safe Trucks Act of 2021 by Senators Todd Young (R-Indiana) and Ben Cardin (D-Maryland). The bipartisan legislation would repeal the 12% federal excise tax on heavy-duty trucks, which currently adds approximately $22,000 to the cost of a new tractor-trailer. “The federal excise tax on heavy trucks is a relic from the First World War that’s now serving to keep cleaner, safer trucks off of our nation’s roads today,” said Chris Spear, president and CEO of American Trucking Associations. “By repealing this antiquated tax, Congress can deliver a win for the environment, highway safety, manufacturing jobs and supply-chain efficiency. We thank Senators Young and Cardin for their bipartisan leadership in advancing a common-sense solution to the benefit of American truckers and the motoring public.” Although technological advances have made the latest tractor-trailers cleaner and safer than ever before, the FET creates a disincentive for motor carriers to modernize their fleets by placing a punitive surcharge on investments in new equipment. As a result, the average age of a truck on the road today is nearly ten years old.