Light, sweet crude oil prices gained modestly to settle above $67/bbl on the New York market Oct. 25 while Brent crude oil prices also rose to close above $76.80/bbl. Upward momentum in oil prices followed stabilizing equity markets.
US stock markets experienced another selloff Oct. 24. The Dow industrials dropped more than 600 points. But US stocks recovered much of those losses Oct. 25.
Separately, the US Energy Information Administration said US crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased by 6.3 million bbl for the week ended Oct. 19 to 422.8 million bb. (OGJ Online, Oct. 24, 2018).
US oil production held steady at 10.9 million b/d for the week ended Oct. 19 compared with the week ended Oct. 12, the EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report said.
Earlier this month, US Sec. of the Interior Ryan Zinke told Fox Business that he believes US oil production could reach 14 million b/d by 2020.
In its October Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA said US crude oil production averaged 11.1 million b/d in September, up slightly from the oil production in August. The EIA expects US production will average 10.7 million b/d in 2018, up from 9.4 million b/d in 2017.
Energy prices
The December light, sweet crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 51¢ on Oct 25 to $67.33/bbl. The January contract was up 48¢ to settle at $67.44/bbl.
The NYMEX natural gas price for November was up nearly 4¢ to $3.20/MMbtu.
Ultralow-sulfur diesel for November increased 2.6¢ to a rounded $2.28/gal. The NYMEX reformulated gasoline blendstock for November was down nearly 1¢ to a rounded $1.81/gal.
Brent crude oil for December was up 72¢ to $76.89/bbl on London’s International Commodity Exchange. The January contract gained 71¢, also reaching $76.88/bbl. The gas oil contract for November rose $6.75 on Oct. 25 to close at $706.75/tonne.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ basket of crudes was not immediately available for Oct. 25.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].
