Discretionary demand for driving fuels, which remains near a 52-week low right now.
Discretionary demand for driving fuels, which remains near a 52-week low right now.: Tyler Richey Quoted in Morningstar
Oil prices drop on rise in U.S. supplies as tariffs threaten to dent Chinese demand
Refinery utilization rose by 1 percentage point to 84.5%, EIA data showed. The uptick was likely in reaction to a “weather-driven rise in demand for heating oil last week,” which also helps explain the sizeable increase in distillate stockpiles, which include heating oil, said Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research.
However, the trends in the weekly data suggest that demand for oil and refined products has been weak so far in 2025, “and [is] potentially poised to get weaker,” he said. “That is especially true regarding discretionary demand for driving fuels, which remains near a 52-week low right now.”
“If we don’t begin to see signs of firming inflation” with gasoline supplied rising back towards 9 million barrels per day or higher in the weeks ahead, then “WTI futures dropping back below $70 [per] barrel will become rather likely,” said Richey.
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