Crude prices ended almost unchanged on Wednesday, 02 September, 2009. Prices remained volatile for entire day but ultimately ended almost at yesterday's levels.
On Wednesday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for October delivery closed at $68.05/barrel. During intra day trading, crude touched a high of $68.8 but also fell to a low of $67.05. Last week, crude ended higher by 9.5%. It was the biggest weekly gain for crude in three months.
For the month of August, 2009, crude ended higher by a marginal 0.7%. For the second quarter, crude ended higher by 40%. Crude prices had rallied 11.3% in the first quarter of 2009.
Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 56% since then. Year to date, in 2009, crude prices are higher by 42%.
EIA reported today that crude inventories fell by 400,000 barrels during last week. Market had expected a decline of 1.9 million barrels. At 343.4 million barrels, crude inventories stand at a level above the upper boundary of the average range for this time of year. Utilization rate rose to 87.2% of capacity.
Rising input was partly offset by another jump in crude imports. The U.S. imported 9.58 million barrels a day of crude last week, up 3.8% from a week ago.
EIA also reported that gasoline inventories fell by 3 million barrels last week. Distillates, however, rose by 1.2 million barrels.
In the currency market on Wednesday, the dollar index, which weighs the strength of dollar, against a basket of six other currencies ended slid by 0.5%.
Also at the Nymex on Wednesday, October reformulated gasoline rose 2.64 cents, or 1.5%, to $1.8086 a gallon. October heating oil fell slightly to $1.7505 a gallon.
October natural gas fell 10.6 cents, or 3.7%, to $2.715 per million British thermal units.
Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.
At the MCX, crude oil for September delivery closed lower by Rs 61 (1.8%) at Rs 3,330/barrel. Natural gas for September delivery closed lower by Rs 5 (3.5%) at Rs 136.3/mmbtu.