Oil higher in volatile trading

10-May-2011

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NEW YORK (AP) — Oil rose on Tuesday after some early losses as investors tried to gauge where the market is headed.

Energy trader Stephen Schork said nobody’s confident about their positions after prices tumbled last week by the largest percentage in two and a half years. The CME Group, which owns the New York Mercantile Exchange, also raised margin requirements this week, making it more expensive to speculate in energy commodities.

“Everyone’s just tightening the reins here” on oil trades, Schork said.

Benchmark crude rose 56 cents at $103.11 per barrel on the Nymex. The June contract plummeted by 15 percent last week before rebounding by more than 5 percent on Monday.

Analysts expect the government will report Wednesday that oil supplies grew for the third straight week, though analyst Phil Flynn says the Mississippi River flood could knock out some refineries and tighten supplies of high-quality crude.

Pump prices continue to retreat after flirting with a national average of $4 per gallon last week, though analysts say prices may rise again in coming days because of a series of unplanned shutdowns at the nation’s refineries. Analysts say some refineries have been hit by power outages, fires and equipment failures. And flooding along the Mississippi River is expected to create problems with pipelines that move oil and gasoline from the Gulf Coast to other parts of the country.

Ongoing refinery problems could tighten gasoline supplies and push prices higher. Gasoline futures rose 8.53 cents, about 2.6 percent, to $3.3637 per gallon on the Nymex.

“This isn’t the kind of thing that can last a long period of time,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service. “I still think that six weeks from now we’ll be well south of $4 a gallon.” The national average for gasoline dropped nearly a penny on Tuesday to $3.951 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and OPIS. A gallon of regular is 19 cents higher than a month ago and $1.043 more than last year.

In other Nymex trading for June contracts, heating oil added 3 cents at $2.9879 per gallon and natural gas futures gained 4 cents to $4.260 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude rose $1.15 to $117.05 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

 


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