Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, Mar. 11 -- Energy prices generally continued to slip Wednesday after government and industry officials reported jumps in US inventories of crude.
The US Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that commercial US crude inventories jumped by 3.7 million bbl to 279.5 million bbl during the week ended Mar. 5 (OGJ Online, Mar. 10, 2004). US distillate stocks rose by 1.4 million bbl to 112.7 million bbl during the same period, but US gasoline inventories fell by 1.6 million bbl to 200.4 million bbl, EIA officials reported.
The American Petroleum Institute subsequently reported that US crude inventories increased by 2.7 million bbl to 281.3 million bbl during the week ended Mar. 5. However, it said distillate stocks dipped by 488,000 bbl to 113.4 million bbl during the same period, while gasoline stocks fell by 1.7 million bbl to 199.1 million bbl.
Crude prices decline
Following those reports, the April contract for benchmark US sweet, light crudes slipped by 18¢ to $36.10/bbl Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the May contract was down by 9¢ to $35.36/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate at Cushing, Okla., lost 15¢ to $36.13/bbl.
Heating oil for April delivery plunged by 1.31¢ to 87.93¢/gal on NYMEX. However, gasoline for the same month rebounded by 1.09¢ to $1.0702/gal.
The April natural gas contract lost 4.1¢ to $5.40/Mcf on NYMEX despite a stable spot market, as weaker oil futures prices continued to weigh on natural gas futures, said analysts Thursday at Enerfax Daily. Prices continued to trade within a technical range ahead of EIA's weekly report on natural gas storage early Thursday, they said.
EIA reported the withdrawal of 28 bcf of natural as from US underground storage during the week ended Mar. 5. That was well below the consensus of Wall Street analysts and down from withdrawals of 96 bcf the previous week and 117 bcf during the same period a year ago. US gas storage now stands at more than 1.1 tcf, which is 407 bcf more than in the same period a year ago but 103 bcf below the 5-year average for that time.
In London, the April contract for North Sea Brent crude dropped by 24¢ to $31.99/bbl Wednesday on the International Petroleum Exchange. Gas oil was down by $1 to $272.50/tonne. The April natural gas contract plunged by 16.2¢ to the equivalent of $3.69/Mcf on IPE.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of seven benchmark crudes lost 63¢ to $31.67/bbl Wednesday.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]
