Crude oil prices took a sharp turn during the second part of the week as they have sharply declined on Thursday. Brent oil price had a downward trend during most of the week, while WTI oil price started the week rising. These changes may have occurred over the rally in the American stock market, the ongoing incline in Libya’s oil production, and the concerns over the European debt crisis that might also affect oil demand in Europe and thus reduce the pressure on Brent oil prices. All these factors may have helped reduce the premium of Brent oil over WTI oil price. The decline in the Philly Fed Index growth rate and the news on Fitch’s outlook on U.S. banks may have been among the factors to affect traders to trade down commodities and stocks.
By the end of the week, Brent oil price declined by 4.14% and WTI spot oil slightly fell 0.74% to its value; as a result, the spread between Brent oil and WTI oil sharply declined to $10.50/b on Friday.
Here is a review of the price changes during last week (November 14th to November 18th) of crude oil (Brent oil and WTI), and a summary of the recent EIA crude oil and petroleum stockpiles report:
Crude Oil Prices – Highlights
WTI spot oil price fell during last week by 0.74%; its weekly average price on the other hand rose by 2.37% as it reached $99.27per barrel, compared with last week’s $96.97 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was -0.29%.
Europe Brent oil price on the other hand sharply declined during the week by 4.14%, and the average price fell by 3.85% compared with previous week’s average.
The premium of Brent over WTI spot prices continued to fall during the week; its average premium was $11.85; it finished the week at $10.55.
Crude Oil Charts
The following chart shows last week’s (for the week ending on November 18th) changes in trend of WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (December delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:
According to chart below, WTI oil price started the week rising, but during the second part of the week crude oil prices sharp declined.
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 started the week rising and as the week progressed the crude oil prices daily percent changes shifted from positive to negative changes. The sharpest fall for Brent oil price was recorded on Wednesday.
Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:
According to the recent EIA report of the US oil market, for the week ending on November 11th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles declined again by 8.7 million barrels and reached 1,736.65 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are 96,303 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:
- Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Outlook November 14-18
- Natural Gas Prices Monthly Outlook for November 2011
Previous issues of weekly report: