Crude up $4/bbl on unexpected draw on US stocks

29 May 2008 16:11  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets rose by almost $4/bbl on Thursday when this week’s US stock figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed an unexpected large draw in crude stocks and a larger than anticipated draw on gasoline.

 

The crude stock draw was the largest weekly decline since September 2004.

 

July NYMEX light sweet crude futures rose from around $129.25 before the figures were published to hit a high of $133.12/bbl, a gain of $2.09 from Wednesday’s close, recouping earlier losses posted on the back of a stronger dollar.

 

However, it then gave back a lot of ground and at 14:50 GMT, July NYMEX crude was trading around $130.80, down 23 cents from Wednesday’s close of $131.03.

 

On London’s ICE Futures, July Brent also gained ground, rising from around $129.10 before the figures were published to hit a high of $132.85. At 14:50 GMT, July Brent was trading around $130.75, down 18 cents from Wednesday’s close of $130.93.

 

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show little change on crude stocks but a build on distillate of around 800,000 bbl and a draw on gasoline of around 200,000 bbl.

 

The weekly US natural gas stock figures, issued at the same time, showed a build of 87 billion cubic feet (BCF), slightly larger than predictions of an 84 BCF build.

 

 

U.S Stocks (million bbl)	w/e 23.05.08
	EIA	Change
Crude	311.6	-8.8
Gasoline	206.2	-3.2
RFG	2.0	n/c
Distillate	109.4	+1.6
Heating Oil	23.1	+0.6
Kerosene	39.6	-0.5

 

By: Tony Dillon
+44 20 8652 3214

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