Futures Markets
Crude prices lower on return to Gulf production
Crude oil prices fell Monday as production resumed in the Gulf of Mexico after a tropical depression that never became a storm caused the closure of almost 63 percent of the region’s production Friday.
West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery was down 14 cents to $81.48 per barrel a little more than half an hour [...]
EIA: Crude inventories down by 3.8 million barrels
Crude oil prices were higher Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported that stockpiles were down by 3.8 million barrels to 318.8 million barrels in the week ending 14 September.
Near the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude for October deliver had added 42 cents over Tuesday’s [...]
WTI drops $1 after hitting new high
West Texas Intermediate crude oil for October delivery set a new high price of $80.36 per barrel during trade on Friday, but by the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange it had dropped $1 from Thursday’s close to $79.09 per barrel.
November contracts for Brent crude were also lower, falling 87 cents [...]
Outages at refineries send crude prices higher
Crude oil prices were mixed Thursday as prices rose in New York after refiners reported power outages at Texas refineries in the wake of Hurricane Humberto.
Port Arthur, Texas, refineries seemed to be the worst affected, with power outages halting production at three refineries with a total of 790,000 barrels of daily capacity, while an Exxon [...]
OPEC raises production in surprise decision
In a surprise move, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided Tuesday to raise crude oil production by 500,000 barrels per day beginning November 1.
OPEC’s secretary general said that high prices were part of the reason the decision was taken, but he said that effects of the US subprime mortgage crisis on the wider economy [...]
Crude oil up on day, lower on week
Crude oil prices were higher on Friday but declined on the week after Hurricane Dean avoided US oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and did very little damage to Mexican facilities.
Pemex, the state-owned Mexican oil company, said that it was able to resume production in the Campeche Sound a day earlier than expected because [...]
Premier updates drilling activities
Premier Oil has provided further update on operations on the Masimpur-3 well in India.
The well was drilled to a depth of 4,002 metres where a sandstone formation was encountered with good hydrocarbon shows and high formation pressure. The mechanical difficulties were resolved, 7 inch casing set and the well was then deepened to 4,419 [...]
WTI drops 86 cents on session
September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 86 cents to $71.12 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, while Brent crude for September delivery fell $1.22 to $69.22 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.
The price of crude oil slid as it began to look as if Hurricane Dean would miss US [...]
Hurricane forces oilfield evacuations in GoM
Tropical Storm Erin and Hurricane Dean have forced the oil and gas operators in the Gulf of Mexico to evacuate platforms and drill rigs.
According to a survey conducted by the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS), as many as 13 platforms and five drill rigs have been evacuated in the GoM, which accounts for nearly [...]
Fourth tropical depression forms in Atlantic Ocean
A fourth tropical depression has formed in the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to a tropical wave in the Gulf of Mexico, both of which could develop into hurricanes.
Speculation is already rife that an Air Force reconnaissance plane may need to fly into the Gulf system for data gathering, on what is expected to be a [...]
WTI stands $7 lower than Aug. 1 peak
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September delivery was 52 cents lower to $71.63 per barrel at the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday, down more than $7 from it record high reached just nine days ago.
Analysts are worried that demand will slow on economic worries [...]
Output increases for Lukoil
One of the world’s leading vertically integrated oil & gas companies, OAO Lukoil Holdings, announced that its total oil and gas production rose 4.3% to 2.21 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the first 6 months of 2007.
Crude oil production rose 4.1% to 48.53 million tons (44 metric tons), an average [...]
Crude prices near record levels
Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday after speculators bet that demand will be higher than supplies even as refiners ramp up production.
Demand could increase by as much as 5.6 percent next year, according to some analysts, partly on extra use connected to the Beijing Summer Olympics, while more immediately Tokyo Electric Power (TYO: 9501) announced [...]
US gasoline, heating oil futures decline
Crude oil prices fell again on Tuesday ahead of US inventories reports due tomorrow that are widely expected to show that refinery utilization will have grown to its highest level in ten months.
One analyst survey has predicted that crude oil inventories will be down and gasoline stockpiles higher for the week ending July 20, while [...]
More pressure on OPEC to raise quotas
The price of crude oil fell on Monday on profit-taking by hedge funds, while at least one analyst predicted that taking of profits could trigger a sharp decline in oil prices.
Meanwhile, another group urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies to increase their production quotas when its ministers meet in Vienna in September.
The Centre for [...]
Crude higher on inventories, production cuts
Crude oil prices were higher in London and New York on Thursday after Total (Euronext: FP; NSYE: TOT) declared force majure after it had to cut exports from one of its oil fields in Angola due to mechanical difficulties, and after US inventories figures released Wednesday showed gasoline inventories down much more than had been [...]
Iraq oil production could increase
It is thought that Iraq’s oil reserves may be almost double as much as previously estimated and this could rank Iraq as having the second largest oil reserves in the world.
With over 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, a quarter of the world’s total, Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest oil reserves in [...]
US gasoline inventories drop unexpectedly
Crude oil prices were higher on Wednesday after the latest US inventories figures from the Energy Information Administration showed that while crude oil inventories were not down as much last week as had been anticipated, gasoline stockpiles were down significantly when they had been expected to increase.
Inventories of crude oil were down by half a [...]
Brent up on maintenance shutdowns
The price of crude oil was higher on Friday as the International Energy Agency again warned that OPEC must increase production in order to avoid tight supplies in the second half of the year.
In addition, the IEA estimated that demand growth would rise to 2.2 million barrels per day next year despite higher prices but [...]
IEA warns OPEC on oil production
The IEA (International Energy Agency) has warned OPEC, the representative body of oil exporting countries, to step up production in the wake of recent price rises.
The statement comes as the price of crude oil has reached a twelve-month peak at around $77 a barrel. The increasing price of oil has the potential to cripple [...]