Crude recovers after 40-cent fall on high stock build

21 February 2008 16:04  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets quickly recoved after falling by about 40 cents on Thursday when this week’s US stock figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a larger than expected build on crude stocks.

April NYMEX light sweet crude futures fell from around $98.50 before the figures were published to hit a low of $98.10/bbl, a loss of $1.60 from Wednesday’s close of $99.70.

However, it then regained ground on the back of a much larger than anticipated distillate draw and at 15:40 GMT, April NYMEX crude was trading around $99.30, down 40 cents from Wednesday’s close.

On ICE Futures, April Brent also lost ground, falling from around $97.30 before the figures were published to hit a low of $96.86. At 15:40 GMT, April Brent was trading around $97.75, down 67 cents from Wednesday’s close of $98.42.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show builds on crude stocks of about 2.3m bbl and on gasoline of around 1.1m bbl, but a draw on distillates of around 1.7m bbl.

The EIA natural Gas stock figures, which were published at the same time, showed a draw of 172bn cubic feet, almost spot on forecasts of a draw of around 174bcf.

US stocks(million bbl)	w/e 15.2.08
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	305.3	+4.2	309.0	+5.5
Gasoline	230.3	+1.1	222.8	-3.0
RFG	0.9	-0.2	0.9	-0.2
Distillate	122.5	-4.5	123.0	-5.8
Heating oil	35.2	-1.5	34.4	-3.7
Kerosene	39.8	-1.3	40.8	-1.0

Sources: EIA, American Petroleum Institute

By: Tony Dillon
+44 20 8652 3214

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