Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, May 26 -- Crude futures prices jumped to a 2-week high on May 25 when traders were surprised by a drawdown of commercial US crude inventories.
US inventories usually begin being drawn down earlier in May as demand ramps up for the summer driving season that officially starts with the Memorial Day holiday on the last Monday of the month. The Energy Information Administration said May 25 that commercial US crude inventories fell by 1.6 million bbl to 332.4 million bbl during the week ended May 20. "This is only the second decline in the last 15 weeks," said EIA officials (OGJ Online, May 25, 2005). Just a week earlier, US crude stocks had hit a 6-year high.
EIA reported US gasoline inventories increased by 600,000 bbl to 215.4 million bbl in the week ended May 20, while distillate fuel stocks jumped by 1.9 million bbl to 105.7 million bbl.
Energy prices
The July contract for benchmark US sweet, light crudes closed at a 2-week high of $50.98/bbl, up by $1.31 for the day after trading as high as $51.60/bbl during the session on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The August contract climbed by $1.19 to $51.66/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate at Cushing, Okla., advanced by $1.42 to $50.80/bbl. Heating oil for June delivery jumped by 4.13¢ to $1.43/gal on NYMEX. Gasoline for the same month rose by 2.5¢ to $1.45/gal.
However, the June natural gas contract dropped 3.4¢ to a new 3-month low of $6.32/MMbtu. "It was the second session in a row that saw a significant divergence in natural gas and crude oil prices," said analysts at Enerfax Energy.
In London, the July contract for North Sea Brent increased by $1.25 to $50.07/bbl on International Petroleum Exchange.
In Vienna, the headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was closed May 26-27 for a public holiday, so no reports on the group's basket price were available.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]
