After weeks of steady declines gas prices in Florida have returned to their pre-summer levels. You have seen it at the local pumps and GasBuddy.com confirms it with this graph:
According to GasBuddy, much of the jump at the pump was fueled by rising oil prices on optimism of a future production cut, which may be led by OPEC. A barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped to nearly $48 per barrel while Brent crude oil traded at $50 per barrel. However to start this week, the optimism appears to be fading, with crude oil prices struggling to maintain their recent bull run. In addition, CFTC data showed short interest fading, signaling that there are fewer buyers interested at current prices.
Last week's Energy Information Administration report didn't help either, showing a combined 5.2 million barrel decline between oil inventories and gasoline inventories. Meanwhile, some refinery issues have crept to the surface out West and in the Midwest. BP's Whiting, Indiana refinery has been struggling for weeks with a water treatment facility slashing capacity. Problems at a Valero refinery in Wilmington, CA and several malfunctions and fires at Gulf Coast refiners has led to less production in those regions as well, impacting gasoline prices.
