Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, Dec. 20 -- Energy prices continued to escalate Dec. 17 as cold weather threatened the northern US and al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden called for terrorist attacks on Middle Eastern oil infrastructure.
A video tape posted on the Internet Dec. 16 called for militants to attack oil facilities in Iraq and other areas of the Persian Gulf. There were subsequent reports that Iraq's northern pipeline network was sabotaged Dec. 18, halting shipments to the export terminal in Ceyhan, Turkey. That was the second attack on Iraqi pipelines in 2 weeks, sources said.
Energy prices
The January contract for natural gas jumped by 45.7¢ to $7.46/MMbtu Dec. 17 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, "driven by a strong rally in oil and a firmer physical [spot natural gas] market in the face of colder Northeast and Midwest weather forecasts for this week," said analysts at Enerfax Daily. "Despite a brief warm-up, forecasters are still looking for a longer-term change to colder weather," they said.
Heating oil for January delivery also escalated, climbing by 5.83¢ to $1.44/gal on NYMEX. Gasoline for the same month was up by 5.23¢ to $1.19/gal. The January contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes soared by $2.10 to $46.28/bbl on NYMEX, while the February contract was up by $2.06 to $46.57/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate at Cushing, Okla., gained $2.10 to $46.29/bbl.
In London, the January contract for North Sea Brent crude gained $1.96 to $43.39/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of seven benchmark crudes increased by $1.03 to $37.87/bbl on Dec. 17. For the whole week, however, the basket price averaged $35.05/bbl, up 84¢ from the previous week. So far this year, OPEC's basket price has averaged $36.02/bbl, compared to an average price of $28.10/bbl for all of 2003.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]