Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Recap 19-23 March 2012

Crude oil prices continue to shift with an unclear trend as many oil traders wait on the sidelined to see how the Iranian tension with the West will break down and will there be a supply shortage of crude oil. Saudi Arabia officials announced in case of an oil shortage, Saudi could raise it oil production by as much as 25%. I wrote in a recent post why this promise even taken at face value won’t help in case there will be an escalation in the relationship between Iran and the West.   During last week, WTI oil price edged down by 0.55% and Brent oil also slipped by 0.43%; as a result, the difference between Brent and WTI reached $19.39/b on Friday. 

Here is a short recap for the developments in crude oil prices (Brent oil and WTI) between March 19th and March 23rd and a summary of the last EIA weekly oil stockpiles update:

Crude Oil Price – Highlights

table crude oil prices - 19-23 March 2012WTI oil price (spot) edged down during last week by 0.55%; its weekly average price rose by 0.25% to $106.40 per barrel, compared with last week’s $106.13 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was -0.1%.

NYMEX Futures Price (April delivery) also slipped by 0.18% during the week, and reached $106.87/b on Friday, March 23rd.

Europe Brent oil price also edged down during the week by 0.43%, and the average price also decreased by 0.41% compared with previous week’s average.

The difference between Brent and WTI spot prices also zigzagged during the week; its average premium was $18.39; it finished the week at $19.39.

Crude Oil Charts

In the following charts (referring to the week ending on March 23rd) are the developments in WTI spot oil, NYMEX Future (April delivery) and Europe Brent prices:

The first chart shows the developments of WTI and Brent oil prices during the week: Brent and WTI oil prices have an unclear trend during the week.

Crude oil price WTI BRENT oil chart - 19-23 March 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 19-23 March 2012Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:

According to the recent EIA report on the U.S Petroleum market, for the week ending on March 16th, U.S. Petroleum stockpiles rose by 1.5 million barrels and reached 1,751.1 million barrels.

The complete crude oil stockpiles review of March 21st.

For further reading: