Commodity Corner: Late Selloff Pushes WTI Downward

- Commodity Corner: Late Selloff Pushes WTI Downward

Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Rigzone Staff
by Matthew V. Veazey

Light sweet crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange benefited from bullish U.S. inventory data for much of the day Wednesday, but a selloff late in the midweek session resulted in 28-cent day-on-day loss.

The WTI ended the day at $85.16 a barrel after receiving a boost for much of the day from the latest oil stocks figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA reported Wednesday that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels last week to 351.8 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by Platts had expected a 2 million-barrel build, rather than a draw, for the period.

Light sweet crude peaked at $86.59 and bottomed out at $84.55 Wednesday.

The Brent contract price did manage to settle higher Wednesday, gaining 38 cents to finish at $110.15 a barrel. Brent traded within a range from $109.20 to $110.96.

After Tuesday's East Coast earthquake rattled nerves and contributed to a spike in natural gas futures, Wednesday's relative geologic calm in the U.S. helped the front-month price return to negative territory. The September contract lost seven cents to end the day at $3.92 per thousand cubic feet.

Natural gas fluctuated from $3.91 to $4.03 Wednesday.

Reformulated gasoline for September delivery remained flat at $2.88 a gallon Wednesday after trading from $2.85 to $2.91.

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Commodity Corner: Oil Edges Downward

Commodity Corner: Oil Edges Downward

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rigzone Staff

by Matthew V. Veazey

June crude oil fell slightly Tuesday as investors anticipated the outcome of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, which concludes Wednesday.

Oil lost seven cents to end the day at $112.21 a barrel as the FOMC began its regular two-day meeting to decide on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to provide clues about any changes to existing policy Wednesday. The Fed's latest policy course has been to keep interest rates very low in an attempt to stimulate the economy. The policy has had the effect of weakening the U.S. dollar, which in turn has been bullish for oil.

Crude oil peaked at $112.64 and bottomed out at $111.12 Tuesday.

Gasoline for May delivery gained four cents Tuesday after a late-Monday power outage resulted in the temporary shut down of three Texas City, Texas, refineries. The BP, Valero, and Marathon refineries together can process 796,000 barrels of oil per day.

Gasoline futures settled at $3.36 a barrel Tuesday. U.S. gasoline inventories have trended downward over the past two months, prompting investors to pay particularly close attention to the Gulf Coast outages.

May gasoline traded within a range from $3.30 to $3.37 Tuesday.

Front-month natural gas ultimately remained flat at $4.39 per thousand cubic feet Tuesday after fluctuating from $4.34 to $4.41.