Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Recap 17-21 October

The crude oil market demonstrated a mixed trend as WTI oil prices slightly inclined while Brent crude oil prices slipped. The Libyan news of Qaddafi’s demise may have helped lower the Brent oil prices as this news may have slightly helped ease the uncertainty in the European crude oil market. On the other hand, the rise in the Philly Fed Manufacturing Index and the U.S. housing starts may have helped push up the WTI crude oil prices.   

By the end of the week, Brent oil price shed 1.9% off its value while WTI spot oil inclined by 0.97%; as a result, the spread between Brent oil and WTI oil sharply fell to $23.56/b on Friday. 

 Here is a review of the changes during last week (October 17th to October 21st) of crude oil prices (Brent oil and WTI), and present a summary of the recent EIA petroleum report:

Crude Oil Prices – Highlights

 

table crude spot oil prices - 17-21 October 2011

WTI spot oil price slightly inclined during last week by 0.97%; its weekly average price slightly rose by 1.55% as it reached $86.67 per barrel, compared with last week’s $85.35 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was 0.11%.

 NYMEX Futures Price (November delivery) also inclined by 1.18% during the week, and reached $87.40/b on Friday, October 21st  

Europe Brent oil price on the other hand declined by 1.90% during the week, and the average price fell by 0.29% compared with previous week’s average.

The premium of Brent over WTI spot prices sharply declined during the week; its average price was $24.59; it finished the week at $23.56.

Crude Oil Charts

The following chart shows last week’s trend of (week ending on October 21st) WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (November delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:

In the chart, Brent spot oil shoed a downward trend during most of the week.

 

 

Crude spot oil prices WTI BRENT charts - 17-21 October 2011

The second chart presents the daily percent changes (i.e. changes around the trend) of crude oil price (WTI spot oil, WTI future, Brent spot oil):

 

Crude spot oil price chart WTI Brent oil - percent change 17-21 October 2011

WTI oil prices sharply inclined on Tuesday and Friday; on the other hand Brent oil and WTI oil prices sharply fell on Wednesday.

Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:

According to the recent EIA report of the US oil market, for the week ending on October 14th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles sharply declined last week by 10.9 million barrels and reached 1,758.1 million barrels U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also declined by 4.7 million barrels and reached 1,028.85 million barrels.

The chart below presents the petroleum and oil stockpiles levels compared to the WTI crude oil price in 2011.

Weekly U.S. Ending Stocks Crude Oil and WTI spot oil price 2011 October 20

For the complete crude oil stockpiles review see here.

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