Crude shoots above $81

Crude futures rise as dollar weakens

 

Crude oil futures were back above $81/barrel today. Prices rose after dollar once again weakened today against its rival currencies. Expectations of a strong job report tomorrow also firmed up crude prices today.

 

For the day ending Thursday, 4 October, 2007, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for November delivery closed at $81.44/barrel (higher by $1.50/barrel or 1.8%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

 

As per the weekly inventory report issued by the Energy Dept yesterday, crude supplies rose by 1.2 million barrels to stand at 321.8 million barrels in the week ended 28 September. Market was expecting a decline in crude supplies. Refineries activity rose to 87.5% from 86.9%.

 

Motor gasoline inventories fell to 191.3 million barrels, down 100,000 barrels. Distillate supplies were pegged at 135.9 million barrels, down 1.2 million barrels on the week.

 

Natural gas, gasoline and heating oil - all rise

 

Natural gas for November delivery rose 13.5 cents to $7.412 per million British thermal units. As per the weekly report by Energy Dept today, natural-gas supplies rose by 57 billion cubic feet to 3,263 billion cubic feet during the week ended 28 September. The increase was below market expectations.

 

Against this backdrop, November reformulated gasoline gained 5.64 cents to $2.0522 a gallon and November heating oil rose 5.26 cents to $2.2313 a gallon.

 

At the MCX, crude oil for October delivery closed at Rs 3204/barrel, higher by Rs 27 (0.8%) against previous day's close. Natural gas closed at Rs 291.3/mmtbu as against previous close of Rs 288.6/mmtbu.

 

OPEC planned to boost daily oil production by 500,000 barrels. OPEC's production target is 27.2 million barrels a day, beginning 1 Nov. OPEC, has decided to raise their daily output by 500,000 barrels per day, starting 1 November.

 

Attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria have curtailed shipments and tight supplies from OPEC have bolstered crude prices this year. As per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, tight global energy supplies are expected to keep energy prices high through 2008.