Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Recap 5-9 December

Crude oil prices started December with a downward trend after they had risen during the past couple of months. Next week there is an OPEC meeting that might stir up the oil market and affect the crude oil prices’ development.

By the end of the week, WTI oil price fell by 1.56% and Brent price by 0.70%; as a result, the difference between Brent oil and WTI oil slipped to $9.32/b on Friday. 

Here is a review of the price development of crude oil (Brent oil and WTI), and a summary of the recent EIA crude oil and petroleum stockpiles report for the week of December 5th to December 9th:

Crude Oil Prices – Highlights

 

table crude oil prices - 5-9 December 2011

WTI oil price (spot) moderately declined during last week by 1.56%; its weekly average price on the other hand slightly inclined by 0.20% as it reached $100.1 per barrel, compared with last week’s $99.90 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was -0.30%.

NYMEX Futures Price (January delivery) also shed 1.56% off its value during the week, and reached $99.41/b on Friday, December 9th  

Europe Brent oil price also declined during the week by 0.70% and the average price slipped by 1.18% compared with previous week’s average.

The difference of Brent over WTI spot prices continued to moderately decline during the week; its average premium was $8.95; it finished the week at $9.32. I review the recent changes in the level of the premium of Brent oil over WTI oil in a recent opinion post.

Crude Oil Charts

The following charts show last week’s (for the week ending on December 2nd) changes of WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (Short term delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:

The chart below presents the development of WTI and Brent oil prices during the week: as seen in the chart, WTI and Brent oil prices had a moderate downward trend during the week.

 

Crude oil prices WTI BRENT oil chart -5-9 December 2011

The 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 prices chart WTI Brent oil - percent change 5-9 December 2011

Crude oil prices sharply declined on Thursday by nearly 2%, while the sharpest gains  of the week were on Friday.

Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:

According to the last EIA report on the U.S Petroleum market, for the week ending on December 2nd, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles inclined by 9.5 million barrels to reach 1,749.93 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are still 77,406 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the same week in 2010.

For the complete crude oil stockpiles review see here.

For further reading:

Previous issues of weekly report: