Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Recap 13-17 February

Crude oil prices continued their upward trend as both Brent oil and WTI oil prices rose during last week. The ongoing tension between Iran and the West may have been among the factors to trade up oil and maintain a high premium of Brent over WTI. During last week, WTI oil price increased by 4.63% and Brent oil by 3.3%; as a result, the difference between Brent and WTI slightly fell to $18.11/b on Friday. 

Here is a short recap for the developments of crude oil prices (Brent oil and WTI), and a summary of the recent EIA oil stockpiles report for the week of February 13th to February 17th:

Crude Oil Price – Highlights

table crude oil prices - 13-17 February 2012WTI oil price (spot) sharply rose during last week by 4.63%; its weekly average price increased by 3.34% to $101.80 per barrel, compared with last week’s $98.51 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was 0.91%.

NYMEX Futures Price (March delivery) also sharply increased by 4.63% during the week, and reached $103.24/b on Friday, February 17th

Europe Brent oil price sharply rose during the week by 3.3%, and the average price increased by 1.91% compared with previous week’s average.

The difference of Brent over WTI spot prices slightly shifted during the week; its average premium was $17.92; it finished the week at $18.11.

Crude Oil Charts

In the following charts (for the week ending on February 17th) are the changes in WTI spot oil, NYMEX Future (Short term delivery) and Europe Brent prices:

The first chart shows the development of WTI and Brent oil prices during the week: Brent and WTI oil prices had an upward trend mainly during the second part of the week.

Crude oil price WTI BRENT oil chart -13-17 February 2012The second chart shows the daily percent changes (i.e. changes around the trend) of crude oil prices (WTI spot oil, WTI future, Brent spot oil):

Crude oil price chart WTI Brent oil - percent change 13-17 February 2012

 

Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:

According to the last EIA report on the U.S Petroleum market, for the week ending on February 10th, U.S. Petroleum stockpiles fell last week by 3.9 million barrels and reached 1,751.6 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are still 44.619 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the same week in 2011.

For the complete crude oil stockpiles review see here.

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