Publicité
Oil stays firmly above $ 55
Oil prices sat tight above $ 55 a barrel yesterday on concerns over the world’s ability to make enough diesel and heating oil ahead of the winter and as OPEC appeared powerless to turn back the rally. US July light sweet crude traded down 14 cents to $ 55.48 a barrel by 0716 GMT, barely denting Monday’s $ 2.08 surge, which took prices to their highest level in seven weeks.
“The increase in US diesel demand, which is boosted by the strong economy, is sparking exceptional concerns on heating oil supplies,” said Hiroyuki Sato, general manager of crude oil and products acquisiton at refiner Japan Energy Corp.
Traditionally, demand for distillates – including heating oil – becomes the guiding factor only in the fourth quarter, after the summer gasoline season ends. But below-average inventories of the product and already stretched global refining capacity has thrown distillates into the spotlight early this year, pushing prices within a few cents of the record highs touched in early April.
“The market is very sensitive to the upside,” said Tony Nunan of Mitsubishi Bank. “The focus has shifted to middle distillates where demand growth is strong,” he said.US diesel demand over the past four weeks has been running more than 6 percent higher than last year, according to the most recent government data, partly as the trucking industry moves Chinese imports to market from the West Coast.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets today to discuss output policy, but has admitted it stands little chance of stemming a rally driven more by a shortage of refined products than the crude oil it produces.
The cartel is likely to raise its official ceiling by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 28 million bpd, rubber-stamping existing overproduction but not adding any fresh barrels to the market, President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said in Vienna.
<B>Yaw Yan Chong</B>
Publicité
Publicité
Les plus récents
