Crude oil prices experienced a steep decline in July. The downward trend was certainly significant, particularly when viewed in the context of the daily price changes over the past three months shown in the following graph:
June was a particularly volatile month for crude oil prices. However, the closing price for the month settled slightly below where the month started. The following graph displays the daily volatility:
During May, crude oil prices increased again for the third straight month and briefly spiked above the $50/barrel mark. May’s closing price of just over $49 is approximately 33% higher than where it ended 2015. Even more notable is that May’s closing price was almost double compared to mid-February’s $26 which was the lowest point of the year.
During April, crude oil prices continued increasing for the second month in a row and closed the month at approximately $46/barrel. April was an active month with a number of factors that influenced pricing. Most notable was the meeting in Doha, Qatar during mid-April where many oil producing nations gathered in an attempt to rein in supply production. No agreement
As a fleet manager, you need to know what your vehicles are doing today, while also asking yourself questions about what your fleet will look like five years down the road. For example: What will oil prices be like in the future? As Automotive Fleet’s Sherb Brown noted recently, fuel prices aren’t expected to increase too dramatically this year, and
As we write this, the price of oil has dropped to $27 a barrel, a 12 year low, and down from the $100 per barrel mark about a year and a half ago. The national average price for diesel fuel is at $2.07 a gallon. It seems like good news for fleet owners, but…Well, there’s always a “but,” isn’t there?
Fleet Managers can be certain of one thing; fuel price volatility. Fuel prices have been on a roller coaster that has recently been climbing after several months of significant declines. Volatility will continue into the foreseeable future which makes a Fleet Manager’s job even more difficult. Managing fuel costs to the annual budget set months ago is nearly impossible.
The past few months showed how fast diesel fuel prices can change. During most of 2014, fuel prices were not very volatile although they declined slowly. Then, at the end of November 2014, a rapid decline began which continued through February 2015 that shaved about 40% off of average wholesale prices and 25% from retail prices.
January was another great month for fleets as diesel fuel prices fell sharply again. The average retail price reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration dropped by 41 cents compared to December. This was the largest decline since prices started falling back in March 2014 and, arguably, it was a bit overdue.
For the past few months, we’ve all been watching the price of crude oil decline rapidly. Even when you start to think it’s going to stabilize and can’t go much lower, it goes down even further. As I write this article, a barrel of crude is now trading in the high $40’s which is less than half of where it
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