MARKET WATCH: NYMEX December crude up slightly awaiting inventory
An attribution was corrected in the article on Nov. 12.
Oil futures for December gained modestly to settle above $44/bbl on the New York market Nov. 10 as analysts and investors awaited release of the government oil and product inventory statistics.
The US Energy Information Administration delayed by a day the release of the Petroleum Status Report because of the Veterans Day holiday on Nov. 11, the day the inventory normally would have been released.
Analysts surveyed by the Wall Street Journal said they expected the inventory would rise by 1.1 million bbl. Separately, the American Petroleum Institute said US oil supply rose by 6.3 million bbl for the week ended Nov. 6.
For the week ended Oct. 30, EIA had said US oil inventories rose by 2.8 million bbl to reach a total of 482.8 million bbl, marking the inventory’s sixth consecutive gain (OGJ Online, Nov. 4, 2015).
Josh Silverstein, analyst with Deutsche Bank Rsearach, said the trends of the first half 2015 continued to play out in third-quarter financial reports for exploration and production companies.
Producers reported that natural gas output beat expectations as did oil production.
“There is less opportunity for upside surprise as the rig count continues to decline,” Silverstein said. “At the company level, what also stood out to us was the transformation stories” as operators, particularly unconventional operators, focus spending on core areas.
Energy prices
The December crude oil contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 34¢ on Nov. 10 to $44.21/bbl. The January crude oil contract was up 32¢ to $45.44/bbl.
The NYMEX natural gas contract for December added 2¢ to a rounded $2.32/MMbtu. The Henry Hub gas price was down 2¢ to $2.11/MMbtu.
Heating oil for December delivery edged up less than 1¢ to $1.49/gal. The price for reformulated gasoline stock for oxygenates blending for December dropped a fraction of a penny to a rounded $1.36/gal.
The December ICE contract for Brent crude was up 25¢ to $47.44/bbl. The January contract gained 18¢ to $48.10/bbl. The ICE gas oil contract for November closed at $449.75/tonne, up $1.75.
The average price for the OPEC basket of 12 benchmark crudes for Nov. 10 was $42.33/bbl, up 20¢.
Contact Paula Dittrick at [email protected].
*Paula Dittrick is editor of OGJ’s Unconventional Oil & Gas Report.
About the Author
Paula Dittrick
Senior Staff Writer
Paula Dittrick has covered oil and gas from Houston for more than 20 years. Starting in May 2007, she developed a health, safety, and environment beat for Oil & Gas Journal. Dittrick is familiar with the industry’s financial aspects. She also monitors issues associated with carbon sequestration and renewable energy.
Dittrick joined OGJ in February 2001. Previously, she worked for Dow Jones and United Press International. She began writing about oil and gas as UPI’s West Texas bureau chief during the 1980s. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska in 1974.