Malcolm Graham-Wood
Independent Analyst
Wednesday’s rise in crude prices continued yesterday as the market got to grips with the inventory numbers, not just in crude but in product where gasoline demand is picking up pretty much worldwide. In addition the situation in the Middle East continues to worsen with Ramada and now Palmyra under IS rule. Having said that the rise on the week will be fairly modest as currency effects also take their toll.
Monday is Memorial Day in the USA and signals the weekend when the famous driving season gets under way and make no mistake Americans genuinely do take to their automobiles. Figures from the AAA suggest that this year will be the biggest for 10 years for Memorial Day traffic and expect 37.2m people will take journeys of 80 km or more from their homes which is up 4.7% on last year and the highest since 2005. Outside of the US it is interesting to see that product demand is picking up in both India and China which should come as no surprise as automobile sales keep rising and the building of 100 new airports in China alone are hardly going to diminish the demand for fossil fuels.
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