Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, Nov.22 -- Energy prices shot up Friday, triggered by a sudden wave of panic buying among European gasoline and gas-oil distributors that spilled over into the US futures market.
Temperatures were forecast to remain below normal through much of this week in Germany, Europe's largest heating-oil market. There also was a surge in European gasoline prices as a result of shipping delays in the Black Sea, analysts said. The US imports some petroleum product supplies from Europe, but that market has been tight this year, especially for heating oil.
Gasoline for December delivery shot up by 7.26¢ to $1.31/gal Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil for the same month escalated by 5.26¢ to $1.48/gal. The December natural gas contract gained 24.2¢ to $7.12/Mcf, although "gains were tempered by a plunging weekend cash [natural gas spot] market and mild [US] weather forecasts into this week," said analysts Monday at Enerfax Daily. "But few expect much more upside with physical prices trading at a steep discount to futures with expiration [of the December contract] on Wednesday."
Petroleum products pulled up crude futures prices with the expiring December contract for US crude soaring by $2.22 to $48.44/bbl Friday on NYMEX. That marked the biggest 1-day increase in a near-month crude contract since June, said NYMEX officials. An expiring crude contract normally is subject to wide swings on the last day of trading, but Friday's increase was unusual, analysts reported.
The new near-month January crude contract climbed by $2.51 to $48.89/bbl on NYMEX. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate at Cushing, Okla., gained $2.22 to $48.45/bbl Friday.
In London, the January contract for North Sea Brent crude was up by $2.17 to $44.89/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of seven benchmark crudes increased by $1.33 to $37.53/bbl Friday. For the whole week, however, OPEC's average basket price declined by $1.98 to $36.89/bbl.
So far this year, OPEC's basket price has averaged $35.97/bbl, up from an average of $28.10/bbl for all of 2003.
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