Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Recap 26-30 December

Crude oil prices ended the year with light changes during the last week of 2011. By the end of the week, WTI oil price slipped by 0.8% and Brent price by 1.53%; as a result, the difference between Brent oil and WTI oil declined to $8.75/b on Friday. 

 Here is a short recap for the recent development of crude oil price (Brent oil and WTI), and a summary of the recent EIA crude oil and petroleum stockpiles report for the week of December 26th to December 30th:

Crude Oil Prices – Highlights

table crude oil prices - 27-30 December 2011WTI oil price (spot) slightly fell during last week by 0.8%; its weekly average price on the other hand increased by 2.09% to $99.80 per barrel, compared with last week’s $97.75 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was -0.19%.

NYMEX Futures Price (January delivery) also declined by 0.85% during the week, and reached $98.83/b on Friday, December 30th  

Europe Brent oil price also declined during the week by 1.53% while the average price slightly rose by 0.57% compared with previous week’s average.

The difference of Brent over WTI spot prices moderately declined during the week; its average premium was $8.70; it finished the week at $8.75. The recent rising tensions in the Middle East (mainly in Iran and Syria) may reverse the recent downward direction of the premium of Brent over WTI.

Crude Oil Charts

The following charts show the development of (for the week ending on December 30th) WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (Short term delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:

The first chart presents the development of WTI and Brent oil prices during the week: WTI and Brent oil prices presented a moderate downward trend throughout the week.

Crude oil prices WTI BRENT oil chart -27-30 December 2011The second chart presents the daily percent changes (i.e. changes around the trend) of crude oil prices (WTI spot oil, WTI future, Brent spot oil):

 

Crude oil prices chart WTI Brent oil - percent change 27-30 December 2011

Crude oil prices rose on Tuesday by nearly 1.5% to 2%, but during the remainder of the week crude oil was trade down.

Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:

According to the last EIA report on the U.S Petroleum market, for the week ending on December 16th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles rose by 3 million barrels to reach 1,736.86 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are 59,671 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the same week in 2010.

For the complete crude oil stockpiles review see here.

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