MARKET WATCHNorth Sea Brent down slightly Friday on IPE

Energy futures prices in London settled slightly lower in a shortened trading session Friday. Meanwhile, the New York Mercantile Exchange was closed for a national day of morning in memory of US President Ronald Reagan.

June 14, 2004

2 min read

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 14 -- Energy futures prices in London settled slightly lower in a shortened trading session Friday. Meanwhile, the New York Mercantile Exchange was closed for a national day of mourning in memory of former US President Ronald Reagan.

The International Petroleum Exchange in London had morning operations only Friday. The July contract for North Sea Brent crude settled at $35.44/bbl, down 30¢ from the previous close. Friday's trading session experienced a crude oil price range of $35.41-35.84/bbl.

Brokers noted that the market's downward move since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to raise its output ceiling has been limited by increasing fears of supply disruption from the Middle East.

Other prices
Gas oil for July was down $3.75 to $313/tonne on IPE. The July natural gas contract was unchanged at the equivalent of $3.85/Mcf on IPE.

The average price for OPEC's basket of seven benchmark crudes was unchanged at $34.59/bbl Friday. At one point last week, the price fell to $34.55/bbl compared with $36.49/bbl during the first week of June.

The OPEC Secretariat said that the price for the year through June 10 has averaged $32.40/bbl. For the month of May, the price averaged $36.27 compared with $32.35 in April, and $32.05 in March.

For the first quarter, the price averaged $30.75/bbl compared with $28.86/bbl for the same period last year.