Transportation Fuels First Look - Week Ending April 1, 2024

• Scroll down for a chart of the RBOB-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
• Total motor gasoline inventories rose by 1.3 MMBbl for the week ending March 22 and are 1% below the five-year average for this time of year

• Latest data from CFTC showed that money managers have increased their bullish positions in New York gasoline futures to the highest level since March 2020, reaching 9,734 net-long positions amid a 36% price increase since early December
• Transition to summer-grade gasoline, domestic refinery maintenance and unplanned outages, and shrinking global product supplies amid Russian refinery attacks are driving prices higher
• Devin Gladden, a spokesperson for AAA, warned higher pump prices will force the working poor to make "lifestyle changes and be a focus in November's presidential election"
• Additionally, rising pump prices may hinder the Fed's inflation-curbing efforts and delay summer rate cuts

• Scroll down for a chart of the NY Harbor ULSD-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
• Distillate fuel inventories fell by 1.2 MMBbl for the week ending March 22 and are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of year

Russia plans to cut April seaborne diesel exports to five-month low

• Russia plans to decrease its daily diesel exports from major western ports in April to about 0.57 MMBbl/d, a 21% drop from March after Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries and seasonal maintenance reduced crude processing rates

• Crude processing hit a 10-month low amid seasonal maintenance

• Despite the export reduction, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed that Russia has no plans to ban diesel exports