AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 6/26/20

Oil prices steadied on Wednesday after Venezuela raised the prospect of a halt to some crude exports, easing worries about oversupply after reports that the U.S. government had asked Saudi Arabia and some other producers to increase output. Falling Venezuelan oil output helped push crude benchmark Brent LCOc1 to more than $80 a barrel last month, but prices have eased since then on talk of higher supply by other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Click Read More below for additional information.

Futures fell 2.5 percent in New York. China’s oil refining dropped the most in three years in July, while crude output retreated from the highest this year. Libya’s biggest oil field, Sharara, cut output by more than 30 percent because of security threats, a person familiar with the matter said. Meanwhile, the dollar strengthened, eroding the lure of commodities as a store of value. "We’re seeing some strength in the dollar, and the preponderance of news seems to be favoring the bears right now," Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group Inc. in Chicago, said by telephone. "If you look at the China data this morning, when it came to the China refinery runs being down in July, that’s adding to the perception of slowing demand, and it’s offsetting the concerns about Libyan oil production." Click Read More below for additional detail.

National Average Price for Regular – Current: $2.259; Month Ago: $2.364; Year Ago: $2.258. National Average Price for Diesel – Current: $2.446; Month Ago: $2.508; Year Ago: $2.372.