Brent Oil

Brent oil prices increased by 4.58%, as prices increased this week. Oil traded on August 23, 2017 at a price of 52.57 (US$/ barrel).

Petrojam prices

87 Octane prices declined week over week, by 1.07% . Additionally 90 Octane  declined by 1.05% week over week. 87 Octane and 90 Octane opened the year at J$97.32 and J$98.98 respectively.

Figure 1: Petrojam, U.S. Gulf Coast Conventional Gasoline Regular and Brent Crude Oil 1 Year Price History

This Week in Petroleum

Changing crude quality mix is affecting crude price differentials and refining decisions

Growth in liquid fuels supply since March has been driven by increases in the production of light crude oils, which have more than offset recent declines in the production of medium and heavy crudes. The divergent trends in light and medium/heavy crude production are reflected in narrowing price differences between crude oil qualities and costs across simple and complex refineries.

Voluntary production cuts from some Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members since November 2016 have reduced the supply of medium and heavy quality crude oil to the world market. In addition, crude oil production outages in Canada and declines in production from Mexico and Venezuela are further reducing the total amount of medium and heavy crude oil available to refiners , although more gradually than OPEC production cuts. In contrast, the two OPEC members exempt from limiting production, Libya and Nigeria, have increased production of their light-sweet crude oil in recent months, although Nigeria’s production remains below its January 2016 level. In addition, much of the increase in U.S. production has come from shale formations in the Lower 48 states, which is primarily light crude oil.

https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/weekly/