Hurricane Dorian expectancy triggers gasoline price spike

Opportunistic gasoline prices spiked Friday in advance of Hurricane Dorian reaching landfall as Florida residents filled their tanks and possibly headed inland.

The Orlando and Jacksonville charts, produced by DTN, reflect regular gasoline daily terminal liftings along with the wt. average rack price (solid blue line). The dotted line is a linear regression trend line. Prices surged considerably above normal levels for both cities.

There seems to be some opportunistic pricing occurring at the wholesale level. However, the New York Mercantile Exchange contract is currently lower by 7.13 cents per gallon.

Orlando is experiencing a surge in ULSD lifting but with only a modest price increase.  Jacksonville saw a decline in ULSD liftings but with a small increase in prices.