Oil Rises to Record Above $98 a Barrel By GILLIAN WONG,AP Posted: 2007-11-07 00:59:52 SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices jumped to a trading record above $98 a barrel Wednesday amid expectations of declining U.S. supplies and following news of an attack on a Yemeni oil pipeline. Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose as high as $98.03 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract Tuesday hit a high of $97.10 before closing at $96.70 a barrel, a record settlement. "The oil market sentiment remains bullish ... there is an overall upward trend toward the $100 level," said Victor Shum, energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "Meanwhile, we can expect extreme volatility where on the one hand some traders will take profit while others will buy back positions." Traders remain worried about whether supplies will be adequate to meet demand for heating fuel in the approaching Northern Hemisphere winter. News of an attack Monday on an oil pipeline in Yemen added to those concerns. Figures to be released later Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration are expected to show crude supplies dropped last week. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires predict, on average, that crude oil inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels. "The price rise is really driven by expectations of drawdowns in crude oil and distillate stocks inventories in the U.S. inventory report," said Shum. "Some cold weather reports out of the U.S. and Europe serve as a reminder that winter is coming and that there are still supply concerns." Oil inventories likely fell due to a suspension of output at Mexico's state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, a major crude exporter to the United States, which temporarily shut its ports last week due to severe weather. On Tuesday, the EIA predicted oil consumption will rise in the fourth quarter and next year despite higher prices, and that inventories will fall. "Strong demand, limited surplus capacity, falling inventories and geopolitical concerns continue to weigh on the market," the EIA said in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. The weak U.S. dollar, which fell to a new low against the euro Tuesday, is also lifting oil prices. Oil futures offer a hedge against a weak dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling. Analysts also expect the EIA to report Wednesday that gasoline inventories rose by 200,000 barrels during the week ended Nov. 2, while supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 500,000 barrels. The analysts expect that refinery use grew by 0.8 percentage point to 87 percent of capacity. In London, Brent crude rose 78 cents to $94.04 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. A number of North Sea oil platforms were being evacuated Tuesday ahead of expected severe weather. Heating oil futures added 2.89 cents to $2.6367 a gallon, while gasoline prices rose 2.4 cents to $2.459 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 6.2 cents to $7.925 per 1,000 cubic feet. Fucking high ass gas prices!!!!
too bad we dont get diesel cars in north america... get a volkswagon lupo and get 80 mpg and u wont have to worry about rising oil prices lol
I hate oil price rises in the US.. Affects nearly every country in the world.. We just had an interest rate rise partly due to the increase of oil prices
my local garage just outside London charges £1.00 per litre. It's the cheapest around my area but if you drive 20 minutes to a town further out from whereI'm it's down to £0.96/ litre. It pays to shop around!! I don't see the prices coming down for sometime and the prices of goods will rise as transport costs are passed to us consumers.
don't talk to me about demand and supply of the winter and BS. once it goes up, when does it ever come down? it only goes higher and higher and oil companies making record profits. obviously there's nothing wrong with the supply if the oil companies are making record profits.
my local is still at 97.9p for unleaded remember about 2p of the rise came from the taxman....-noclue
Damn shit is rising here everyday everytime i past by the gas stations, and it's just not gonna stop. And yea the value of American Dollar is dropping so everything else is pretty much gonna cost more anyways...
uhm... the US gets diesel cars... dunno aboot canada though -tongue2 we've had that diesel jetta for a couple years now... none in Cali yet though cuz of CARB(fck it)... but u can get it in most other states... and i'm not really a fan of diesel engines neways... heavy, high compression monsters... gas locally for me jumped $.25 in 3days -mellow... and almost $.75 in 2weeks -dead
