The light, sweet crude oil contract for September settled above $42/bbl on the New York market Aug. 14 after bouncing up from the trading session’s low set early in the day of $41.35/bbl, which marked the lowest price that the front-month contract experienced since Mar. 4, 2009.
“The lowest crude prices in 6 years might not be enough to put the brakes on the US supply growth,” an ANZ Bank report said. “US shale players are actively cutting costs.”
A refinery outage boosted gasoline prices week even as oil prices dropped last week. BP PLC has suggested the largest distillation unit at its Whiting, Ind., refinery could be down for about a month, tightening US Midwestern gasoline supplies and raising prices for gasoline and other products (OGJ Online, Aug. 13, 2015).
September gasoline futures dropped 2.72¢/gal on the New York market Aug. 14 but rose 3.9% on a weekly basis.
Energy prices
The September crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 27¢ on Aug. 14 to settle at $42.50/bbl. The October contract was up 13¢ to $43.11/bbl.
The natural gas contract for September was up 1¢ to a rounded $2.80/MMbtu. The Henry Hub, La., gas price declined 9¢ to $2.83/MMbtu.
Heating oil for September delivery fell 1¢ to a rounded $1.56/gal. The price for reformulated gasoline stock for oxygenates blending for September dropped by nearly 3¢ to a rounded $1.69/gal.
The September ICE contract for Brent crude declined 19¢ to $49.03/bbl on Aug. 14. The October contract was down 44¢ to $49.19/bbl. The ICE gas oil contract for September dropped $1.25 to $474.50/tonne.
The average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ basket of 12 benchmark crudes for Aug. 14 was $46.62/bbl, down 67¢.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].
*Paula Dittrick is editor of OGJ’s Unconventional Oil & Gas Report.
