23.09.2004 16:52
In global petroleum news, oil prices surged to within a dollar of last month’s record high as two American refiners request loans of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve in the wake of havoc from Hurricane Ivan. Right now the market is jittery that there will be a release of SPR oil, a move which Washington could announce today. US officials are reviewing the requests, one for 100,000 to 200,000 barrels and the other for 1 million to 2 million barrels. The last time Washington loaned oil from the SPR was in late 2002 when Hurricane Lili disrupted shipments into Gulf Coast distribution hubs. The White House has consistently maintained that it would not withdraw oil from the 670 mln bbl reserve, held in underground salt caverns at four sites in Louisiana and Texas, except for a severe supply disruption. Last month, Vice President Dick Cheney defined such a disruption as the loss of 5-6 mln bpd in imports. The United States imports about 11 mln bpd of crude and petroleum products. US government data showed a drop of 9.1 Mln bbl in crude inventories in the week to September 17 after Hurricane Ivan ripped through the Gulf of Mexico, slowing imports and disrupting offshore production. This decline, the eighth in as many weeks, put national commercial stocks at 269.5 mln bbl, the lowest level since February and almost 14 mln bbl below a year ago. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) also reported declines in oil products' tanks, with distillates falling 1.5 mln bbl and key heating oil down by 1 mln bbl. Heating oil stocks normally build at this time of year ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter. New York heating oil futures have hit record highs. In our opinion, we will see strong upward pressure on crude oil prices over the next few months caused by this squeeze on winter heating fuel markets, just as gasoline shortages pushed up prices to record levels around the peak of the summer driving season. In electronic trading NYMEX WTI closed up $1.50 Wednesday, hitting $48.35, which is only about a dollar shy of last month’s record high. It should also be noted that falls in the balance of product inventories are harder to restore than those in crude supplies. Crude imports tend to bounce back quickly in the US, while products take much longer to get back on track. This sticky situation is also being aggravated by concerns over further supply disruptions from Yukos, which is battling bankruptcy in the face of multi-billion-dollar tax debts. Yukos' main subsidiary, Yuganskneftegaz, was forced to cut crude output by 35,000 bpd, or 2% of Yukos production, after a power firm cut supplies for payment delinquency. Earlier this week, Yukos said it would trim crude exports via rail to China as it struggled to pay monthly transport costs after its bank accounts were frozen. Global supplies are straining to meet the fastest growth in oil demand in 24 years. World crude production is close to its limits with only top exporter, Saudi Arabia, holding any significant spare capacity, estimated at about 1 mln bpd.
Quelle: Finam
