Friday, February 23, 2007

Crude extends rally following bullish supply data

Crude-oil futures extended their rally early Friday in a continued response to data showing a far bigger-than-expected decline in heating fuel during last week's bitterly cold snap, reducing what have been unusually high stockpiles following a mild winter.

Tensions with Iran after it defied United Nations demands that it stop enriching uranium and fresh violence in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region supported gains.
Crude for April delivery was last up 14 cents at $61.09 a barrel, after rising to as high as $61.52 in early trade. On Thursday, the contract closed just below $61 after the data were released.

The Department of Energy distillate stocks, which include heating oil and jet fuel, were off 5 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 16, far more than the 3.3 million-barrel drop traders had expected and a clear sign of robust heating demand triggered by the bitter cold that swept across the Midwest and Northeast.

Gasoline stocks fell 3.1 million barrels last week nationwide, also far more than the 900,000-barrel decline traders had been looking for.

The decline in refined products outweighed a 3.7-million-barrel rise in crude stocks that was three times the volume analysts were expecting, propelling the entire complex higher.

"If there is good news for the consumer in this report it is that OPEC [the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] which has been very concerned about high inventories approaching the low demand season will be far less likely to call for additional cuts in production at its March meeting," said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics, in emailed comments.

Total U.S. Stocks are 80 million barrels less than they were in mid-October. "Based upon the U.S. numbers OPEC can no longer claim the market is over supplied,' he said.
Meanwhile, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany will meet in London on Monday to discuss further sanctions against Iran, the BBC reported, citing U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.

On Thursday, the U.N. officially confirmed that Iran had failed to meet a deadline to stop enriching uranium - and had even expanded its program.

In Nigeria, gunmen have shot and killed a Lebanese oil worker in the latest attack on foreigners working in the oil industry, the BBC reported. A group calling for more of Nigeria's oil revenue to be kept within the country has carried out a series of attacks on foreign workers in the past year. The violence has cut exports from the world's eighth biggest oil producer by about a fifth.

Against this background, reformulated gasoline futures were last up 0.2 cent at $1.7567 a gallon and heating oil was up 1.17 cents at $1.7367 a gallon. Natural gas fell 12.7 cents to $7.60 per million British thermal units.

source news : marketwatch.com

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