What's Moving the Oil Markets?

 

• Crude futures rose Monday, mainly underpinned by bullish technicals and partly by Sunday's fire at Saudi Arabia's Haradh gas pipeline that killed 28 people, sources said. Additionally, with the US dollar coming close to record lows against the euro in earlier trading on Monday, the petroleum futures complex received some additional support in an otherwise quiet market.

•At 11:27 GMT, Jan ICE Brent gained 45 cents to $92.07/barrel, trading above $92/b for the first time in a week. "The fire at the gas pipeline in Saudi Arabia seems to have lent support to the complex in earlier trading," a London-based broker said. "Otherwise the market appears very quiet...the market is off its highs though," he added. Looking at technicals, market sentiment still appears bullish. "Technicals are still bullish. To me it looks as if crude futures have another $1/b to go before they find resistance," the broker said.

•On Sunday, state-owned Saudi Aramco said in a statement that a fire broke out in a gas pipeline near the Hawiyah gas gathering plant in eastern Saudi Arabia. But although markets seemed to react to the incident with a stronger start into Monday trading, Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi said Sunday that oil and gas production in Haradh were not affected by the fire.

Updated: November 19, 2007