Jim Ritterbusch Quotations

We are seeing a small deficit in gasoline supplies, and there is some concern that the heavy refinery maintenance schedule set for the end of the quarter is going to affect supplies.

What we're seeing now is that some funds had moved to the side making sure there wasn't a bearish surprise and now they are rotating back into the long side,

The problem with sufficient refinery capacity to produce gasoline still presents an issue, at least within the US.

But they do provide evidence that the oil infrastructure can bounce back pretty quickly after a really bad storm. These gasoline numbers give a cushion.

Given the magnitude of the damage and flooding considerations, they are coming back pretty fast...especially within the framework of a lot of employees that have been misplaced.

I think there is going to be a fairly precarious supply-demand balance. If we have a couple of refinery snags, there will be some product dislocations.

Retail prices are going to vary among regions but for all practical purposes $3 is a floor.

That build (in gasoline) is very mysterious, driven by another big drop in demand.

We're not seeing enough pickup in production or imports. This should be enough to support the whole energy complex through the balance of the week.

The real strength is from institutional funds flowing into the market.

This report is completely overshadowed by the storm. We did see a draw in gasoline stocks, and even though it's slight it isn't what this market needed,

This tightness of supply in the Gulf Coast is going to spread,

This thing has tentacles that are going to stretch all over the place,

We did see a larger draw than expected, but that draw was mitigated by a significant increase in refinery runs.

Crude supply is no longer an issue. We have plenty of it. However, that crude number is being countered to some extent by the large decline in gasoline stocks.

Crude stocks should show a sizable increase as an expected further recovery in imports toward 10 million barrels a day more than negates the impact of additional refinery restarts.

After Katrina, we're better equipped to analyze the potential for Rita and I don't think the upside response will be as exaggerated.

The big thing was that products stocks were up at expense of crude. The good news is we're building products supplies; the bad news is crude supplies are back down toward historic low levels.

A source of support to the screen appears to be indications of increased refinery maintenance that should prove capable of reversing a dramatic 23-mil bbl up-trend in gasoline stocks during the past seven weeks. Production declines should also be driven by some slippage in gasoline yields.

You still have a sizable year-on-year deficit in distillate stocks, so it's too early in the winter to write off this distillate market.

They didn't do anything, and the market viewed that as bearish and rightly so. There's currently no sign of support underneath this market.

They didn't do anything, and the market viewed that as bearish and rightly so, ... There's currently no sign of support underneath this market.

It's easy to analyze this one because there is only one number to talk about. That gasoline build was just huge again.

The numbers didn't do much to slow the rally down,

That's pretty close to a capacity pace in imports. It looks like the Saudis are more than offsetting the Iraqi loss.

It's still somewhat of a coin toss. The odds lean against the possibility of this coming up the Houston Ship Channel.

The biggest surprise was the increase in distillate stocks.

The U.S. dollar recovery yesterday and today is forcing some funds to part with their longs. They were looking for an excuse to take some profits and they found that excuse in the dollar strength.

High prices are eating into consumer demand, and the focus is on gasoline because of the upcoming driving season.

By and large you had this myriad of refinery news which supported the products and pushed crude prices up.

The gasoline figure was the important number, the decline was much larger than expected.

The gasoline draw is a bullish number, without doubt. The decline was much bigger than the 1.1 million barrels draw the Street was anticipating,

The funds are really scrambling to build a larger position in the long gasoline crack spreads.

The funds are back in the market, showing a strong commitment on long positions for crude.

The fundamentals across most of the complex are so bearish that on any given day you're either going to need to a lead from gasoline or some bullish geopolitical headlines to give this market a rally. Otherwise it's just going to sink.

The main feature was the big gasoline drop again. That's going to support the entire complex.