Crude gains ground on US stock figures

19 May 2010 16:08  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The crude oil markets rose by about 50 cents on Wednesday, wiping out earlier losses, when this week’s US Stock figures from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed a smaller crude build than forecast and an unexpected draw on distillates.

However, crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub again showed a build and the largest operator of tanks reported that it was essentially using all its available capacity.

June NYMEX light sweet crude futures rose from around $69.30/bbl before the figures were published to within a cent of the earlier high of $69.81/bbl, which was a gain of 40 cents from Tuesday’s close.

However, it then lost some ground and at 14:45 GMT, June NYMEX crude was trading around $69.60/bbl, up 19 cents from Tuesday’s close of $69.41/bbl.

On London's ICE futures exchange, July Brent also gained ground, rising from around $73.85/bbl before the figures were published to hit a high of $74.50/bbl. At 14:45 GMT, July Brent was trading around $74.10/bbl, down 33 cents from Tuesday’s close of $74.43/bbl.

Analysts’ predictions for this week’s US Stock figures were that they would show a build on crude stocks of about 700,000 bbl and on distillate of around 1.3m bbl, but a draw on gasoline of around 600,000 bbl.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) figures were published late on Tuesday.

U.S Stocks (million bbl)	w/e 14.05.10
	EIA	Change	API	Change
Crude	362.7	+0.2	363.5	-0.8
Gasoline	221.8	-0.3	221.4	+1.0
RFG	2.1	+0.7	2.1	-0.1
Distillate	152.8	-1.0	146.6	-0.3
Heating Oil	45.3	-0.7	42.6	-0.5
Jet Kerosene	44.1	-0.2	43.6	-0.3

To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: Tony Dillon
+44 20 8652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly