Oil Prices Soar as Gasoline Supply Plunges
Translator
Editor
Kamis, 1 Januari 1970 07:00 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Global oil prices rebounded to end Wednesday's trade, or Thursday morning Indonesia time, with high profits after the U.S. release of fuel oil consumption revealed to be higher than what the market expected.
Analysts believe that investors who buy oil when prices are down also contributed to the price hike.
The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price for September's shipment rose by US$1.32 to US$40.83 per barrel in the New York Mercantile Exchange, Xinhua reported. Meanwhile, the Brent North Sea price for October's shipment increased US$1.30 to close at US$43.10 per barrel at the London ICE Futures Exchange.
Gasoline supply in the U.S. dropped by 3.3 million barrels last week, far below the market estimate of a 200,000-barrel decline, US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Wednesday.
Preliminary weekly production data showed that U.S.' crude production fell flat to less than 8.5 million bpd. However the country's crude supply managed to increase 1.4 million barrels last week, as compared to the markets' expected drop of 1.4 million barrels.
On Tuesday, oil prices extended their losses with US oil being traded for less than $40 a barrel the first time since April, on the back of concerns over excessive market supply.
ANTARA
