PVR - The Irish Explorer

Oil prices retreat on profit-taking
Thursday, December 21 12:53:01

(BizWorld)

World oil prices fell on profit-taking, a day after New York crude had struck a three-month peak owing to a drop in US crude stockpiles.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, fell by 30 cents to USD63.42 per barrel in electronic deals before the official opening of the US market. On Wednesday the contract had touched a three-month high of USD15.
In London today, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery slid 35 cents to USD62.88 in electronic trading.


At Mitsubishi Corp's international petroleum business in Tokyo, Tony Nunan said that USD63 was 'a pretty healthy' level for prices.

'So I think people are deciding to take some profit,' he added.

The US Department of Energy revealed on Wednesday that inventories of crude oil slumped 6.3 million barrels to 329.1 million in the week ended Dec 15.

That was more than triple the decline expected by analysts who had predicted a drop of just 2.0 million barrels.

However, levels of distillate products, which include heating oil and diesel, increased by 1.2 million barrels to 133.1 million over the week. Analysts had expected a drop of 600,000 barrels.

Gasoline or petrol reserves rose 1.0 million barrels to 200.9 million, the DoE report showed, against forecasts of no change.

Earlier this week, crude futures had rebounded strongly as traders reacted to thick fog barring Gulf of Mexico tankers from the busy shipping channel in Texas.

'It seems that shipping delays along the Gulf Coast and especially along the Houston Ship Channel did affect the market significantly, with delayed imports to refineries in Texas because of heavy fog,' said Sucden analyst Michael Davies.

'However, inventories