China (Platts)-- 5 Nov - 10 Nov
2006
The biggest movers in the world energy futures complex last week
were gasoline on the New York Mercantile Exchange and gasoil on
London's ICE Futures. Both contracts ended the week higher, and were
the only major contracts to move by more than 1% in value over the
week as a whole.
The biggest driver in the markets was the weekly report by the
US' Energy Information Administration, which showed a tightening
supply-demand balance and a bigger-than-expected drop in distillate
stocks.
"US inventories have fallen heavily relative to their five-year
average for a fourth straight week, bringing the total fall over
that period up to 32.5 million barrels or more than 1.1 million
barrels/day," Paul Horsnell and Kevin Norrish, energy analysts at
Barclays Capital, said in a report.
A sharp drop in crude imports to the US Gulf Coast offset an
unexpected decline in refinery crude inputs, keeping US crude stocks
from building as much as anticipated during the week ending November
3.
Oil futures were generally stronger at the close of the week as a
result--although a sharp jump on Thursday was almost completely
cancelled out by a sharp fall on Friday. Volatility remains an
important theme in all the energy markets.
Light, sweet crude oil in the US closed the week at $59.59 per
barrel, up less than 1%; crude ended the week up by a similar amount
in London, at $59.71. Gasoline in the US rallied 3.7% to end the
week at $1.5627 per gallon, while gasoil in London closed out the
week at $542.75 per metric ton, up 2.3% on the week. Heating oil in
New York was little moved by gasoil's gains, closing up little more
than 1% at $1.6966 per gallon.
Natural gas futures, which have put in solid gains since the US
storage build-up season began to wind down, sputtered out, however.
In the US, Henry Hub futures lost 1% to close at $7.794 per million
British thermal units. UK gas futures ended at 53.07 pence per therm,
down 1.4%.
The rally in oil prices that started Thursday ran into a brick
wall on Friday, after the International Energy Agency's monthly oil
report called for lower global crude demand in 2007.
Demand for OPEC crude is currently outpacing estimates of the
cartel's production due to a pick-up in fourth-quarter demand and
lower-than-expected non-OPEC supply, the International Energy Agency
said November 10.
Created: November 13, 2006
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