Market Close: Oct 01 Up
Oct 1st, 2014 by loren
www.fuelmanagerservices.com then click on buy-additive
Crude-oil futures ended lower on Wednesday, as a surprise decline in U.S. inventories wasn’t enough to stop a drubbing for oil futures, caught between slack demand and plentiful supplies world-wide.
Light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November lost 43 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $90.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was the lowest settlement for a front-month contract since April 2013. On Tuesday, following news of a ramp-up in OPEC production, New York-traded oil took its biggest one-day decline since November 2012, and notched a 13% quarterly loss–its biggest since the second quarter of 2012. November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange lost 51 cents, or 0.5%, to end at $94.16 a barrel. That was Brent’s lowest settlement since June 2012. Brent had also posted on Tuesday its steepest quarterly decline in two years.
Earlier Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration reported U.S. crude inventories were down 1.4 million barrels on the week ended Sept. 26. Analysts polled by Platts had expected an increase of 1 million barrels. The EIA also reported gasoline inventories were down 1.8 million barrels on the week, while distillates inventories decreased 2.9 million barrels. The analysts surveyed by Platts had forecast a decrease of 1.3 million barrels for gasoline stockpiles and a decline of 625,000 barrels for distillates supplies. Prices were approaching a level producing countries might start slowing down output, analysts said. “If there is a further drop in prices we might see reductions in production not necessarily just from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries but also from non-OPEC countries for economical reasons,” said Antoine Halff, head of oil industry and markets at the International Energy Agency.
He said some of the high-cost oil production in Canada could come under pressure if oil prices were to drop to $80 and there is also speculation that shale-related oil production in the U.S. is much more price elastic than conventional oil production. However, it will take time for lower prices to affect production, Halff said at an oil and gas conference in Singapore.
Elsewhere in the energy complex, gasoline for November delivery the new front-month contract, rose 1.2 cents, or 0.5%, to $2.4497 a gallon on Nymex. Gasoline has been up five of the past seven sessions. November heating oil also the new front-month contract, gained half a penny, or 0.2%, to $2.6556 a gallon on Nymex.