Market watch: Energy futures prices remain mixed ahead of US holiday

Feb. 17, 2003
Markets were mixed Friday as traders continued reacting to the latest reports on the ebb and flow of US inventories of crude and petroleum products ahead of the 3-day US holiday weekend, with New York markets closed Monday for Presidents' Day.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb.17 -- Markets were mixed Friday as traders continued reacting to the latest reports on the ebb and flow of US inventories of crude and petroleum products ahead of the 3-day US holiday weekend, with New York markets closed Monday for Presidents' Day.

The March contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes increased 44¢ to $36.80/bbl Friday in an abbreviated trading session on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the April position gained 18¢ to $35.36/bbl. Heating oil for March delivery rose 0.79¢ to $1.06/gal. Unleaded gasoline for the same month fell 0.91¢ to $1.02/gal.

The March natural gas contract gained 11.1¢ to $5.85/Mcf on NYMEX, "lifted by a firm cash market and some preweekend short covering amid mostly cold forecasts, despite a brief warm-up," said analysts Monday at Enerfax Daily. "No one wanted to go home short for the long holiday weekend with all the uncertainty as to weather risk and the risk of war with Iraq," they added.

In London, the April contract for North Sea Brent oil was little changed after chief weapons inspector Hans Blix's report to the United Nations failed to produce a consensus on Iraq, as some had anticipated. That contract settled at $32.50/bbl, up 4¢ for the day, after trading in a range of $32.15-32.76/bbl Friday on the International Petroleum Exchange. However, the March natural gas contract shot up 13.7¢ to the equivalent of $3.24/Mcf on IPE.

The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of seven benchmark crudes gained 42¢ to $32.33/bbl Friday.

For the full week, however, that basket price averaged $31.47/bbl, up $1.05 from the previous week. So far this year, the OPEC basket price has averaged $30.54/bbl, up from an average price of $28.39/bbl for all of 2002.