Crude oil prices continued with their upward trend especially WTI oil prices during last week; the premium of Brent oil over WTI oil price also continued to contract. The rapid changes in Europe including the recent changes in Italy and Greece helped stir up the financial markets and may have been among the leading factors to affect the changes in crude oil prices throughout the week. The IEA revised down its projections for the global oil demand, and OPEC’s oil production remained virtually unchanged in October.
By the end of the week, Brent oil price declined by 0.86% and WTI spot oil added 3.63% to its value; as a result, the spread between Brent oil and WTI oil sharply fell to $14.77/b on Friday.
Here is a review of the price changes during last week (November 7th to November 11th) 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 rose during last week by 3.63%; its weekly average price also sharply rose by 3.99% as it reached $96.97 per barrel, compared with last week’s $93.24 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was 0.99%.
Europe Brent oil price on the other hand moderately declined during the week by 0.86%, but the average price inclined by 3.41% compared with previous week’s average.
The premium of Brent over WTI spot prices sharply declined during the week; its average premium was $16.85; it finished the week at $14.77 – the lowest level since June 28th, 2011.
Crude Oil Charts
The following chart demonstrate last week’s (for the week ending on November 11th) changes in trends of WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (December delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:
In the chart, WTI spot oil price had a moderate upward trend throughout the week while Brent oil price didn’t present a clear trend and eventually declined.
The 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 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. By Friday, crude oil prices bounced back and moderately inclined.
Crude Oil Stockpiles – Highlights:
According to the recent EIA report of the US oil market, for the week ending on November 4th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles changed direction and sharply declined by 15.3 million barrels and reached 1,745.3 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are 96,705 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: