Crude up $1/bbl as focus switches to falling dollar

18 September 2008 11:42  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Crude rose by more than $1/bbl on Thursday to take Brent on ICE Futures close to $96/bbl as the markets switched focus from the current banking crisis to a drop in the US dollar.

 

By 10:20 GMT, November Brent crude had hit a high of $95.95/bbl, a gain of $1.11/bbl over the Wednesday close of $94.84/bbl, before easing back to around $95.70/bbl.

 

At the same time, October NYMEX crude was trading around $98.30/bbl, having hit a high of $98.57/bbl, a gain of $1.41/bbl over the previous close.

 

Oil prices were losing ground earlier in the morning as the focus was on falling Asian stock markets.

 

However, this was a slight downward adjustment from Wednesday, when prices rose by around $6/bbl, the largest one-day increase in three months.

 

The current upward pressure was also due to the continued shutdown of production facilities and refineries following the passage of Hurricane Ike had added further supply worries.

 

Weekly supply data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) published on Wednesday revealed a decline in crude stocks of some 6.3m bbl, much larger than analysts’ predictions of 3.8m bbl.

 

However, the declines in gasoline and distillate stocks of 3.3m bbl and 0.9m bbl respectively were less than forecast.

By: Giovanni Coiro
+44 20 8652 3214

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