Futures Markets
Crude futures soar on oil refinery fires
Prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile exchange soared above $60 per gallon on Friday after an explosion and fire at BP’s Texas City refinery, the third largest in the United States, and a fire at a Murphy Oil refinery in Louisiana on Thursday.
The BP explosion and fire […]
Occidental Petroleum Corp returns to Libya
Occidental Petroleum Corp. announced of Friday that it has received approval from the Libyan government to once again begin operation there.
It will be the first time the US oil company has conducted business in Libya since the administration of President Ronald Reagan slapped sanctions on the African country in 1986 after a bombing […]
Crude futures rise early on gasoline supply concerns
Crude oil prices rose early on Thursday on renewed worries about tight US gasoline supplies, but those early gains disappeared by early afternoon in New York, when the price of West Texas Intermediate on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 1 cent to $59.10 per barrel. Later dated WTI contracts, though, were up. […]
Crude inventories down slightly, but gasoline up
In its weekly report of US oil inventories, the US department of energy said that crude oil inventories stood at 317.8 million barrels, down 2.3 million barrels from the previous week. Gasoline inventories were also down, by 2.1 million barrels as demand was up as people took summer driving holidays.
Distillate stockpiles, however, […]
Oil futures rise but so do inventories
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September delivery added 20 cents to $59.20 per barrel on Tuesday, but it was still off record highs reached in early July due to increased stockpiles and lowered demand forecasts.
Brent crude for September delivery on the International Petroleum Exchange gained 17 cents to sit at $58.04 per […]
Texas incident prevents BP reporting record profits
BP, the second biggest oil company in the world when figured by market capitalization, announced on Tuesday that its replacement cost net profit in the second quarter amounted to $4.981 billion, up 29 percent from the same quarter last year, mostly due to higher oil prices but with an additional boost from higher oil and […]
Inventory data eases hurricane concerns on inventories
Crude oil prices for the week were affected by Hurricane Emily, which nevertheless turned out not to be a factor for US oil facilities after Hurricane Dennis had caused production to fall by 500,000 barrels per day last week.
This in turn affected the inventories data that was released on Wednesday. Those figures […]
CNOOC may consider bidding for new oil company
Analysts are speculating that with Unocal’s move to affirm its support for a newly raised bid from Chevron, CNOOC might abandon its bid for the US oil company and try to buy another company instead, even though CNOOC insists that it is standing by its bid for the California-based company.
CNOOC has been in the […]
Crude falls and rises on Emily passing
Crude oil prices fell and then rose on Tuesday as Hurricane Emily lost and then regained strength as it plowed through the Gulf of Mexico toward the coast of Mexico.
While the hurricane is expected to miss most US oil and gas operations in the Gulf and was downgraded from a category 4 storm […]
IPE and WTI prices continue to fall
IPE Brent crude oil September contracts on the International Petroleum Exchange lost $1.06 on Monday to trade at $56.55 per barrel during the day, while West Texas Intermediate crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down in late morning trade by $1.09 to $57 per barrel.
Falling prices included that Hurricane Emily had […]
Unocal still in deliberation on CNOOC bid
Unocal’s board of directors met again on Sunday night to consider whether to back CNOOC’s takeover bid for the California-based oil company or whether to stand behind its acceptance of Chevron’s lower bid, but so far there has been no word of what decision has been reached, or if there even has been a decision […]
Hurricane Emily concerns futures traders
Crude oil prices were up on Friday as worries heightened that Hurricane Emily might venture into areas of the Gulf of Mexico where oil production facilities are located and interrupt supplies.
West Texas Intermediate for August delivery gained 55 cents to $58.35 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude September […]
Senator introduces legislation to block CNOOC bid
US Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, said Friday that he would introduce legislation that would bar the sale of Unocal to CNOOC of China as being contrary to the interests of national security.
The US House of Representatives has already approved similar legislation. Besides his national security concerns, Mr. Dorgan […]
Crude futures down as Brent continues high
US crude oil futures lost over $2 on Thursday while Brent crude lost nearly a dollar on August contracts and just over a dollar and a half as the threat from Hurricane Emily to oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico diminished and concerns over short supplies in the fourth quarter eased. Gasoline […]
CNOOC prepares to sweeten Unocal bid
CNOOC’s board of directors not only agreed unanimously to changes to its bid for US oil company Unocal on Wednesday night, it also gave management the right to raise its bid if it became necessary. The changes were made to make the deal more attractive to Unocal and also to reduce the risk that […]
Investories down again but still on average high
Crude oil inventories in the US fell by 3.9 million barrels to 321 million barrels in the week ending July 8, for the second week in a row.
This was slightly higher than the 3.5 million barrel decline that had been expected. Inventories, however remain above average for this time of year. […]
CNOOC considers raised bid for Unilocal
The board of directors of CNOOC will meet on Wednesday to consider changes to its bid for US oil company Unocal. Besides looking to alter its bid to conform to conditions Unocal has set down before it will consider CNOOC’s bid, such as maintaining pension benefits for all of Unocal’s employees and promising to […]
Royal Dutch Shell compensates employees over overstated reserves
Royal Dutch/Shell Group has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by its U.S. employees after the company overstated its reserves of gas and oil by 41 percent. The settlement will cost Royal Dutch/Shell around $90 million, less than two days’ profits for the company, which netted $18.5 billion last year.
The settlement brings […]
BP examines damage to hurricane hit platform
A spokesman for BP said on Wednesday that it is too early to tell how the damage to it’s Thunder Horse drilling platform from Hurricane Dennis will impact the schedule for getting the new platform into production. Before the mishap, BP expected the platform to begin production late this year and to produce up […]
Brent crude forecasts rise
Deutsche Bank on Monday raised its oil price forecasts for Brent crude for the third time in a year.
The Bank’s 2006 prediction rose from $35 to $45.50 per barrel, it’s 2007 forecast was up from $30 to $38 per barrel, and its new 2008-2010 prediction was $33 per barrel, up from $30. […]