Text 15970, 90 rader
Skriven 2005-10-20 05:05:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Oil
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Oil keeps dropping.  Speculators are going to start bailing after Wilma.  Gas
prices here were $2.42 yesterday and dropping...

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http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051020/oil_prices.html?.v=3

AP
Crude Oil Prices Slip Below $62 a Barrel
Thursday October 20, 4:57 am ET
By Gillian Wong, Associated Press Writer
Crude Oil Prices Slip Below $62 a Barrel on Surprise Rise in U.S. Gasoline
Stocks


SINGAPORE (AP) -- Crude futures fell Thursday on news that U.S. gasoline stocks
rose last week and as forecasts predicted Hurricane Wilma will likely avoid key
U.S. oil facilities along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery slipped 41 cents to $62 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange in Asian electronic trading. The contract,
which expires Thursday, closed at $62.41 on Wednesday, down 79 cents.

Brent December crude futures on London's International Petroleum Exchange fell
28 U.S. cents to $58.32 a barrel.

Gasoline fell half a cent to $1.6700 a gallon while heating oil fell 1.29 U.S.
cents to $1.9005. Natural gas lost nearly 3 cents to $13.521 per 1,000 cubic
feet.

Wilma, which weakened slightly to a still-powerful Category 4 hurricane, was
centered in the northwestern Caribbean Sea. The Miami-based National Hurricane
Center warned it could re-intensify into a Category 5 storm Thursday, move into
the Gulf of Mexico and then swerve east, toward Florida.

But some analysts said it was risky to assume the storm wouldn't disrupt the
ongoing recovery of oil and gas operations in and around Texas and Louisiana,
and recalled that some traders had discounted the impact of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita too early.

"We remain on storm watch," says Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading Corp. "The
US$75-a-barrel area for crude oil is still the target. If Wilma takes a turn
toward the oil infrastructure we could be there sooner rather than later."

As of Wednesday, about 65 percent of the Gulf's oil production and about 52
percent of its natural gas production remained blocked following the twin
hurricanes that hit in August and September, according to the U.S. Minerals
Management Service. The U.S. Gulf region provides 30 percent of oil and 21
percent of natural gas produced in the United States.

The weekly U.S. petroleum supply snapshot released Wednesday provided some
relief to prices as it showed an unexpected increase in gasoline inventories.

For the week ended Oct. 14, U.S. gasoline inventories increased by 2.9 million
barrels to 195.7 million barrels, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's
Energy Information Administration.

Gasoline stocks remain 4 percent lower than a year ago, but the build came as a
surprise to analysts, who underestimated the improvement in U.S. refining
capacity -- which rose about 4 percent to 79.1 percent, according to EIA -- and
the amount of gasoline imports.

U.S. crude inventories rose by 5.6 million barrels from the previous week to
312.0 million barrels. Crude stocks are nearly 12 percent higher than year-ago
levels.

Analysts had been expecting crude inventories to rise by only about 1.5 million
barrels, and gasoline and distillate inventories to fall, according to a Dow
Jones survey of analysts.

U.S. inventories of distillates -- which include diesel and heating oil --
dropped by 1.9 million barrels to 122.7 million barrels. They are more than 1
percent above year-ago levels, but in the lower half of the average range for
this time of year.

Meanwhile, suspected insurgents using explosives set fire to the main oil
pipeline in northern Iraq which links an oil field in Kirkuk to the country's
largest oil refinery in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, officials said
Thursday.

The morning explosion set fire to the pipeline and several oil valves about 35
miles west of Kirkuk, said firefighter Adil Mohammed.

Iraq has the world's third-largest known oil reserves, but the industry has
been crippled by several wars, sanctions during Saddam Hussein's rule and the
anti-U.S. insurgency. Militant attacks on pipelines and refineries are
frequent.

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