By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Feb. 13 -- Energy futures prices dropped in international markets Tuesday in a wave of profit taking following the increases of recent sessions.
Several analysts claimed that oil markets previously were over bought. That seemed to be confirmed by a bearish report of US petroleum inventories late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute that exceeded expectations.
API said US oil stocks increased by 4.7 million bbl last week, more than twice as much as some analysts had expected. US gasoline inventories gained 1.7 million bbl, while distillate stocks, including home heating oil, rose by 604,000 bbl instead of the modest fall that some anticipated. API also reported utilization of US refining capacity increased to 87.8% last week, from 86.4% previously.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Global Energy Studies reported Tuesday that Russia actually increased oil exports during January rather than cutting them as it had promised the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Russia exported more than 10.97 million tonnes of crude last month, or nearly 2.6 million b/d, excluding shipments to the Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan that are not featured in Russia's export statistics. More than 650,000 additional b/d are scheduled to be exported in the first quarter of this year, Centre officials said.
The 2.6 million b/d that Russia exported to world markets in January is nearly 70,000 b/d above the average scheduled level of exports for this quarter and considerably higher than its pledged level, observers reported.
API reported Wednesday morning that US oil production also increased nearly 3% last month from year-ago levels, while US oil imports dropped 3.3%. Even more indicative of the current level of US consumer demand, officials said, was the 30.9% drop in January imports of refined products.
The March contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes lost 68¢ Tuesday to $20.73/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the April contract dropped 69¢ to $21.12/bbl. Both continued to decline in after-hours electronic trading to $20.53/bbl and $20.85/bbl respectively.
Unleaded gasoline for March delivery plunged 1.81¢ to 60.19¢/gal during regular trading on the NYMEX. Home heating oil for the same month also fell 1.59¢ to 54.6¢/gal. However, the March natural gas contract inched up 1.9¢ to $2.31/Mcf.
In London, the March contract for North Sea Brent dropped 98¢ to $20.46/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange. Natural gas for the same month slipped 0.1¢ to the equivalent of $2.69/Mcf on the IPE.
The average price for OPEC's basket of benchmark crudes lost 45¢ to $19.09/bbl Tuesday.
