By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Jan. 21 -- Oil prices continued to fall Jan. 20 as traders reacted to reports of increased US inventories of crude and petroleum products.
The US Energy Information Administration reported after the close of trading Jan. 19 that US inventories of crude jumped by 3.4 million bbl to 292.2 million bbl during the week ended Jan. 14, while distillate stocks were up by 800,000 bbl to 123.8 million bbl. US stocks of gasoline rose by 1.7 million bbl to 217 million bbl during the same period (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2005).
The February contract for benchmark US sweet, light crudes dropped 64¢ to $46.91/bbl Jan. 20 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the March position retreated by 55¢ to $47.31/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate at Cushing, Okla., lost 64¢ to $46.92/bbl. Gasoline for February delivery declined by 0.56¢ to $1.2576/gas on NYMEX. Heating oil for the same month dipped by 0.28¢ to $1.3398/gal
The February natural gas contract was the sole gainer, up by 1.5¢ to $6.30 MMbtu. On Jan. 21, EIA reported 110 bcf of natural gas was withdrawn from U.S. underground storage in the week ended Jan. 14. That was up from 88 bcf the previous week but down from 156 bcf in the same period last year and above the latest consensus among Wall Street analysts. Storage now stands at 2.5 tcf, up by 197 bcf from a year ago and 334 bcf above the 5-year average.
In London, the March contract for North Sea Brent crude lost 39¢ to $44.32/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange.
The Vienna headquarters for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was closed Jan. 21 for a holiday and no report of the Jan. 20 OPEC basket price was issued.
