Crude recovery shortlived on US stock figures

13 February 2008 15:56  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets initially rose by about 80 cents on Wednesday when this week’s US stock figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a smaller than expected build on crude stocks.

March NYMEX light sweet crude futures rose from around $92.10 before the figures were published to around $92.90/bbl, a gain of 12 cents from Tuesday’s close.

However, it then lost ground on the back of a smaller than anticipated draw on distillates and at 15:40 GMT, March NYMEX crude was trading around $92.00, down 78 cents from Tuesday’s close of $92.78.

On ICE Futures, March Brent also gained ground, rising from around $92.55 before the figures were published to around $93.10.

At 15:40 GMT, March Brent was trading around $92.50, down 36 cents from Tuesday’s close of $92.86.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show builds on crude stocks of about 2.7m bbl and on gasoline of around 1.8m bbl, but a draw on distillate of around 1.4m bbl.

US stocks(million bbl)	w/e 8.2.08
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	301.1	+1.1	303.5	+1.3
Gasoline	229.2	+1.7	225.8	+0.6
RFG	1.1	-0.3	1.1	-0.1
Distillate	127.0	-0.1	128.8	-0.5
Heating oil	36.7	+0.6	38.0	-1.6
Kerosene	41.1	-0.1	41.8	n/c

Sources: EIA; API
By: Tony Dillon
+44 20 8652 3214

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