Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, July 29 -- Crude prices rebounded strongly on July 28, wiping out the previous day's losses, as a fire at a Louisiana refinery reminded traders how tightly energy supplies are stretched.
Murphy Oil Corp. shut down a diesel hydrotreater following a fire at its 120,000 b/d Meraux refinery. The company reported minimal damage to the unit but gave no estimate of when it might restart.
That was followed by an overnight explosion and fire apparently in a line at a hydrotreater at British Petroleum PLC's 446,500 b/d Texas City plant. No injuries were reported. In March, a bigger explosion and fire in another part of that refinery killed 15 people and injured 170.
Energy prices
The accident at the Murphy Oil refinery caused the September contract for benchmark light, sweet crudes to jump to$60.15/bbl before falling back to a close at $59.94/bbl, up by 83¢ for the day, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The October contract was up by 86¢ to $60.98/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate gained 83¢ to $59.95/bbl. Heating oil for August delivery climbed by 2.83¢ to $1.65/gal on NYMEX. Gasoline for the same month increased by 0.62¢ to $1.72/gal.
The September natural gas contract escalated by 10.2¢ to $7.69/MMbtu on NYMEX, "on a mix of follow-through buying" from the previous day's rally "and industry concerns about an extremely low build" in US underground natural gas storage. The Energy Information Administration reported the injection of 42 bcf of natural gas into storage during the week ended July 22 (OGJ Online, July 28, 2005).
In London, the September contract for North Sea Brent crude gained 75¢ to $58.76/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange. Gas oil for August delivery lost $4.50 to $516/tonne, however.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of 11 benchmark crudes increased by 27¢ to $53.13/bbl.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]
