By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 22 -- Energy prices continued to climb Thursday, pulled up by growing demand and apparently short supplies of heating oil so near the Nov. 1 start of the winter heating season.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labor Congress said Thursday it's mobilizing for another potential strike next week that could disrupt oil production in that country. In an effort to force the government to rescind earlier price increases on fuel, the NLC called a 4-day general strike Oct. 11-14 that didn't affect Nigeria's oil production or exports. However, fuel marketers decided this week to raise retail fuel prices by another 40%. "A much longer strike would likely strain the ability of integrated oil companies to maintain normal production rates. As a result, disruptions [of oil production and exports] would not be out of the question," said analysts Friday at Raymond James & Associates Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Energy prices
The December contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes climbed by 6¢ to $54.47/bbl Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the January contract increased by 12¢ to $54.05/bbl. However, on the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate dropped 45¢ to $54.47/bbl, the same closing price as the new front-month NYMEX contract.
Heating oil for November delivery escalated by 1.91¢ to a record closing of $1.58/gal Thursday on NYMEX. Gasoline for the same month advanced by 0.9¢ to $1.41/gal. The November natural gas contract was up by 7.4¢ to $7.70/Mcf, "confounding conventional wisdom by moving to a new record 2004 settlement price on the same day that a new record for natural gas in underground storage was reported by the [Energy Information Administration]," said analysts Friday at Enerfax Daily. EIA reported 64 bcf of natural gas injected into US underground storage in the week ended Oct. 15, raising storage to more than 3.2 tcf of gas.
Enerfax analysts reported natural gas contracts for January and February, "the two coldest winter months," settled "well above" $9/Mcf Thursday on NYMEX.
In London, the December North Sea Brent crude contract increased by 20¢ to $50.72/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of seven benchmark crudes was up by 74¢ to $46.61/bbl Thursday.
