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Oil leaps to record over $93
Oil leapt to a record high for a third day yesterday, surpassing $93 as Mexico briefly halted one-fifth of its production and the US dollar struck new lows.
US light crude for December delivery which hit a high of $93.20 a barrel earlier, was up 85 cents at $92.71 by 0735 GMT. London Brent crude which hit a record high $90, was up 98 cents at $89.67. Oil prices have soared by more than a third since mid-August as a stand-off between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, dollar weakness, easing interest rates and winter supply fears attracted a fresh wave of investment capital.
Prices rose yesterday after Mexico?s state-owned oil company Pemex said it was shutting about 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output due to bad weather in the Gulf of Mexico and high terminal stocks, fanning concerns of a US winter shortfall. A spokesman said Pemex should be able to resume output ?immediately? once the cold weather passed in two days. The country?s three main export terminals were shut on Sunday. The precautionary closure came days after a storm killed at least 21 oil workers, provoking a flurry of criticism against Pemex for its safety standards.
Gains accelerated mid-day amid unusually heavy trade of 16,000 lots on the US front-month contract on Monday, with some traders pointing to short-covering by options players or technical stop levels around the $93 a barrel mark. After easing early last week, oil prices resumed their march toward the $100 mark after data showed a sharp drop in US crude stocks, the US dollar plumbed new lows and tension mounted between Turkey and Kurds in northern Iraq.
?There remain concerns that oil market conditions are tightening and geopolitical tensions are also continuing to add a premium to oil prices?, said David Moore, a commodities analyst at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The dollar hit another record low against a basket of currencies yesterday on expectations that the Federal Reserve will trim interest rates this week and possibly again this year.
Despite the surge in oil prices, OPEC has shrugged off calls from importer nations to raise output, saying politics and speculation -? not a supply shortfall ? are to blame.
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