Crude slips from record highs on US stock builds

27 February 2008 16:08  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets fell by about 70 cents on Wednesday when this week’s US stock figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a larger than anticipated build on crude stocks, plus a much larger than expected build on gasoline stocks, which are now at the highest levels for 14 years.

 

April NYMEX light sweet crude futures fell from around $100.65 before the figures were published to hit a low of $100.01/bbl, a loss of 87 cents from Tuesday’s close.

 

However, it then regained a little ground and at 15:45 GMT, April NYMEX crude was trading around $100.10, down 78 cents from Tuesday’s close of $100.88.

 

On London’s ICE Futures, April Brent also lost ground, falling from around $99.30 before the figures were published to hit a low of $98.73. At 15:45 GMT, April Brent was trading around $98.80, down 67 cents from Tuesday’s close of $99.47.

 

Earlier in the day, April NYMEX crude had hit a new front month record high of $102.08/bbl, while April Brent also set a new record at $100.53/bbl.

 

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show builds on crude stocks of about 2.5m bbl and on gasoline of around 300,000 bbl but a draw on distillate of around 2.1m bbl.

 

 

US Stocks (million bbl)	w/e 22.02.08
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	308.5	+3.2	307.3	-1.7
Gasoline	232.6	+2.3	221.7	-1.0
RFG	1.1	+0.9	1.0	+0.2
Distillate	120.0	-2.5	121.7	-1.2
Heating Oil	33.9	-1.3	34.0	-0.4
Kerosene	40.1	+0.3	40.9	+0.2

By: Tony Dillon
+44 20 8652 3214

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