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| Oil deepens slide to near eight-week low |
| 2006-08-17 |
| SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil fell for a fourth day on Thursday to the lowest in nearly eight weeks after U.S. data reminded traders that crude stocks are relatively robust and the summer driving season is nearing its end. U.S. light, sweet crude for September delivery U.S. crude prices have shed more than 7 percent after falling for six of the last eight sessions as a ceasefire took hold in the Middle East and BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) decided to shut in only half of its 400,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Prudhoe Bay oilfield. Some dealers had feared the partial closure of the biggest oilfield in the United States might trigger a surprisingly large drawdown in this week's crude inventories, but data on Wednesday showed a decline of 1.6 million barrels, in line with forecasts. Crude stocks have fallen from the eight-year high reached earlier this year, but still remain higher than almost any time since 1999, giving refiners a sizeable supply buffer to guard against any unexpected disruptions. Crude stocks have fallen from the eight-year high reached earlier this year, but still remain higher than almost any time since 1999, giving refiners a sizeable supply buffer to guard against any unexpected disruptions. Gasoline inventories dropped by a deeper-than-expected 2.3 million barrels, but demand eased from the previous week as the summer driving season, which ends in early September, began to wind down. "It is this pace of demand deceleration, as well as the plentiful supplies of heating oil, that may set a more modest bearish tone to the market in the weeks after August," said First Energy Capital analyst Martin King. "WTI crude oil prices treading water more in the range of the very low $70s to very high $60s may be something that materialises, barring any hurricane-induced price spikes." Distillate stocks rose 800,000 barrels and heating oil supplies stand higher than a year ago, the data showed. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #6 El Cheapo stations (The only ones I shop at) are currently 2.76 down from 2.85 which has held for at least the last three months as the standard price. Went down yesterday. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2006-08-17 19:35 |
| #5 Uh, $2.99.9 a gallon, not $299.9 a gallon (though sometimes it feels like it)... |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-08-17 18:34 |
| #4 I haven't paid less than $3 a gallon for almost all of the last year ($299.9 at a cheapo station you can hardly get near in Antioch a couple weeks ago). I remember back in 1999 when I fueled up in Nevada at $1.04.9 a gallon then passed into California where I fueled up for $1.49.9 a gallon - AND THERE WASN'T EVEN A CRISIS THEN! God I hate California most of the time... |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-08-17 18:33 |
| #3 It's down in the Richmond (VA) area - I paid $2.73 last night, down from $2.78 last Friday. (Wa-Wa and Sheets; Exxon, Chevron, etc., are running anywhere from $2.89 to $2.95 - over $3 last week.) It's probably still too much.... I too hope the speculators lose their shirts. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-08-17 17:29 |
| #2 That's a given. I hope the speculators are getting their asses kicked... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-08-17 14:55 |
| #1 Some expert I heard a few days ago said oil prices had been driven up by speculation, and would soon return to 'market' levels ... down $0.50 or $0.75 a gallon. Maybe even $1.00 a gallon lower. It's a nice thought. But where will we blame Bush? It must be his fault, whatever is bad in this article. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-08-17 14:44 |