Crude prices seesaw as US stock build countered by gasoline draw

24 February 2010 15:58  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets initially fell by about 40 cents on Wednesday, adding to earlier small losses, when this week’s US stock figures showed a larger-than-forecast build on crude, although this was countered by an unexpected draw on gasoline.

April NYMEX light sweet crude futures fell from around $78.85/bbl before the figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) were published to around $78.45/bbl, which was a loss of 41 cents from the previous close of $78.86/bbl but above the earlier low of $78.25/bbl.

However, it then regained some ground and at 15:40 GMT, April NYMEX crude was trading around $79.25/bbl, up 39 cents from the previous close.

On London’s ICE futures exchange, April Brent also lost ground, falling from around $77.15/bbl before the figures were published to around $76.80/bbl.

At 15:40 GMT, April Brent was trading around $77.65/bbl, up 40 cents from the previous of $77.25/bbl.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US stock figures were that they would show a build on crude stocks of about 2.0m bbl and on gasoline of around 400,000 bbl, but a draw on distillate of around 1.6m bbl.

The figures from the American Petroleum Institute (API) were published late on 23 February.

US stocks (million bbl)	w/e 19.02.10
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	337.5	+3.0	334.4	-3.1
Gasoline	231.2	-0.9	232.0	+1.7
RFG	0.8	-0.1	1.5	n/c
Distillate	152.7	-0.6	158.7	-0.8
Heating Oil	42.7	+0.6	45.5	-0.3
Jet Kerosene	43.7	+1.0	43.7	n/c

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By: Tony Dillon
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