Oil takes more than a dollar in New York
NEW YORK - Oil prices took more than a dollar in New York on Thursday, the last session of the week, after having already risen by two dollars the previous day, boosted by the drop in US oil reserves last week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), a barrel of "light sweet crude" for February delivery ended $ 78,05, up $ 1,38 from Wednesday.
In London, on the InterContinentalExchange, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude with the same maturity rose by 86 cents to 76,31 dollars.
On Christmas Eve, a celebration for which the oil market will be closed, "the volume of trade remained ridiculously low," observed Ellis Eckland, independent analyst.
For him, prices remained supported by the announcement Wednesday of a drop in a surprising extent of oil reserves last week in the United States, the first country consuming black gold in the world.
It reached 4,9 million barrels for crude oil, almost five times more than expected, and 3,1 million for distilled products (including diesel and heating oil), twice as much as expected.
In addition, gasoline inventories fell unexpectedly, by 900.000 barrels.
The barrel had already jumped more than two dollars Wednesday in reaction to these figures.
"The total drop (in reserves) is 14,4 million barrels, in addition to a decline of 12 million the previous week," said Ellis Eckland. "This represents a drop of 2 million barrels a day, just in the United States. It is very significant."
"The weather has cooled (in the United States), so there could be a further decrease in stocks next week. We are starting to have a situation where the relationship between supply and demand could be tightening rapidly." , he added.
US oil reserves have been well above normal in recent months. This abundant supply weighs on prices.
According to the analyst, prices have also been stimulated by the progress of Wall Street, whose indices have ended at the highest since autumn 2008. The stock market is often considered by operators of the oil market as a barometer of the economic outlook.
"We are approaching the end of the year with relatively strong oil prices," noted Mike Fitzpatrick of MF Global.
"The prices remain stuck in a range" between 70 and 80 dollars, observed for his part Andy Lipow, of Lipow Oil Associates. "They can stay there for a long time to come: on the one hand we have growth in Asia which pushes up prices, and on the other, we have more and more oil coming from OPEC members."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided this week to leave its production quotas unchanged, but "real production will continue to increase given the rise in prices: OPEC members need these revenues," he said. 'analyst.
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