AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 3/02/21

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.073; Month Ago: $3.043; Year Ago: $2.111. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $3.219; Month Ago: $3.172; Year Ago: $2.424.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are discussing an agreement that would raise oil output by 300,000 to 600,000 barrels a day (bpd) over the next few months, Bloomberg reported, citing people briefed on the talks. That is well below the 1.5 million bpd uptick in production touted a few weeks ago, reducing investor fears of a significant slowdown in rebalancing in oil markets, which could potentially hurt oil prices. Click Read More below for additional information.

Brent LCOc1 had gained 28 cents to $53.66 a barrel by 0952 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures Clc1 were up 15 cents at $48.81. “Hurricane Harvey was bearish for crude and speculators went massively short WTI but now there is a reversal to positions pre-Harvey. Strong margins are helping underpin crude ... gasoil is at its highest point this year,” Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix consultancy said. Many refineries, pipelines and ports that were knocked out by Harvey 10 days ago are restarting. As of Tuesday, about 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity, or 20 percent of the U.S. total, was shut. This compares with 4.2 million bpd at the height of the storm.