Brent oil rose during the week; WTI didn’t change – Weekly recap 5-8 July

Crude oil prices started the week with sharp rises which changed into fall by the end of the week; by the end, Brent oil price added 4% to its value, while WTI spot oil moderately declined by 0.74%, resulting in the spread between Brent oil and WTI oil rising to $21.58/b – its highest since June 13^th. The recent news from the US regarding the disappointing labor report might have been among the factors to drive oil prices down by the end of the week.    

 Let’s review the changes during last week (July 5^th to July 8^th) of crude oil prices (Brent oil and WTI), and present a summary of the recent EIA petroleum report:

Crude oil prices – highlights

WTI spot oil price declined during last week by 0.74%; its weekly average price on the other hand rose by 3.64% as it reached $97.12 per barrel, compared with last week’s $93.7 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was 0.34%.

 NYMEX Futures Price (August delivery) also fell by 0.71% during the week, and reached $96.20/b on Friday, July 8^th.

Brent spot oil average price also inclined by 6.15% compared with previous week’s average.

 The difference between the Brent and WTI spot prices sharply inclined and averaged at $17.90, and it finished the week at $21.58.

The rising gap between Brent oil and WTI spot oil might suggest that the European oil market is tightening up compared to the U.S. oil market.

Crude oil charts

 The following chart shows last week’s trend of WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (August delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:

The chart presents a moderate upward trend for Brent spot oil price, while WTI spot oil remained nearly unchanged during most of the week.

 

 The second chart presents the daily percent changes (i.e. changes around the trend) of crude oil price (WTI spot oil, WTI future, Brent spot oil):

 

 

In the chart Brent oil and WTI spot oil started the week with rises, continued with sharp rises on Thursday and ended the week with moderate falls.

 Petroleum Stocks –highlights:

In last week’s EIA report regarding the US petroleum market, the U.S. Petroleum and oil stocks very moderately inclined last week by 477 thousand barrels, or by 0.03%. For the week ending on July 1^st crude oil stocks reached 1,792 million barrels.

The chart below presents the petroleum and oil stocks levels compared to the WTI crude oil prices during 2010-2011.

The chart shows the ongoing downward trend of WTI spot oil price in recent months; petroleum and oil stocks started to incline during February- April but in recent months they leveled out with moderate rises.

 

For the complete petroleum stocks review see here.

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 For further reading:

• Oil prices Monthly outlook –July 2011

Previous issues of weekly report:

• Oil prices rose during last week – Weekly recap 27 June- 1 July
• Oil prices fell again during last week – Weekly recap 20-24 June