Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, Aug. 16 -- Energy futures prices dipped from record highs in profit taking Aug. 15 as some of the 14 refineries that had suffered various outages since late July brought some units back online.
Crude prices remained above $66/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange, however.
Meanwhile, a shipping source told Dow Jones Newswires on Aug. 15 that crude movements through Iraq's northern export pipeline to the Ceyhan terminal in Turkey were curtailed Aug. 5, with no estimate as to when shipments might resume. No reason was given for the disruption. However, another source reported three predawn explosions set ablaze a pipeline near Kirkuk on Aug. 4.
Energy prices
The September contract for benchmark US sweet, light crudes traded as low as $65.35/bbl Aug. 15 on NYMEX before closing at $66.27/bbl, down by 59¢ for the day. The October contract lost 30¢ to $67.07/bbl. However, crude contract prices for most subsequent months continued to climb, topping $67/bbl through July 2006 with February and March pegged at $68/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas Intermediate was down by 59¢ to $66.28/bbl.
Gasoline for September delivery lost 4.27¢ off its previous record high to $1.96/gal on NYMEX. Heating oil for the same month declined by 3.63¢ to $1.87/gal. The September natural gas contract slipped by 4.8¢ to $9.54/MMbtu, "pressured by weaker crude oil prices, a cooler weather forecast for this week, and profit taking after the record rally last week," said analysts at Enerfax Daily.
In London, the September contract for North Sea Brent crude fell by 87¢ to $65.58/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange. Gas oil for September lost $11.75 to $589.25/tonne.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of 11 benchmark crudes dipped by 9¢ to $59.05/bbl. On Aug. 15.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]
