Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, July 26 -- Energy prices retreated July 25, ending a 3-session rally for crude, as traders again took comfort from the fact the weeks-old Israel-Lebanon conflict has not yet spread to any of the major producing countries on the Persian Gulf.
However, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it shut in another 180,000 b/d of production in Nigeria because of a pipeline leak. The company now has 650,000 b/d of Nigerian production shut in, primarily because of civil unrest in the Niger Delta.
US inventories
The US Energy Information Administration reported July 26 that commercial inventories of US crude remained unchanged at 335.5 million bbl during the week ended July 21, after increasing by merely 200,000 bbl the previous week. Gasoline stocks plunged by 3.2 million bbl to 211 million bbl in the most recent period. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 800,000 bbl to 131.9 million bbl, with a decrease in diesel fuel offset by a 1.2 million bbl increase in heating oil.
Imports of crude into the US declined by 194,000 b/d to 10.5 million b/d during the same week. Input of crude into US refineries was down by 89,000 b/d with units working at 92.5% of capacity. Gasoline production decreased to 9.1 million b/d, accompanied by a sharp drop in distillate fuel production to 3.8 million b/d.
Energy prices
The August contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes lost $1.30 to $73.75/bbl after reaching as high as $75.78/bbl in intraday trading July 25 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The October contract dropped $1.27 to $74.71/bbl. Regular gasoline for August declined by 2.93¢ to $2.28/gal on NYMEX; heating oil for the same month decreased by 2.6¢ to $1.94/gal. After increasing through four consecutive trading sessions, the August natural gas contract dropped 19.6¢ to $6.41/MMbtu July 25.
In London, the September IPE contract for North Sea Brent retreated by $1.33 to $73.28/bbl However, gas oil for August inched up by 50¢ to $622.25/tonne.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of 11 benchmark crudes gained 72¢ to $68.71/bbl on July 25.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected].
