Crude oil prices changed directions throughout the week, but by the end of the week, much like gold and silver prices, they haven’t change much compared with crude oil prices at the end of last week. The sharp gains in the US and European stock markets may have provided some back-wind for crude oil prices to rise: the S&P500 index added to its value 4.62% during the week. The depreciation of the US dollar against major currencies may have also assisted in keeping crude oil prices high; on the other hand, there were several reports that may have helped pull down crude oil prices including: the recent Philly Fed Index that showed a negative outcome in August, the IEA revised down global oil consumption in 2011 and 2012, along with OPEC’s new projection that Libya to reach 1 million bbl/d within six months. By the end of the week, Brent oil price slightly fell by 0.32% and WTI spot oil declined by 0.26%; as a result, the spread between Brent oil and WTI oil reached $26.42/b on Friday.
Let’s review the changes during last week (September 12th to September 16th) of crude oil prices (Brent oil and WTI), and present a summary of the recent EIA petroleum report:
Crude oil prices – highlights
WTI spot oil price slightly declined during last week by 0.26%; on the other hand, its weekly average price inclined by 0.65% as it reached $88.93 per barrel, compared with last week’s $88.36 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was -0.24%.
Brent spot oil price also declined by 0.32% during the week and the average price fell by 0.80% compared with previous week’s average.
The premium of Brent over WTI spot prices sharply declined during the first part of week only to rise again during the second part of the week; during the week it averaged at $24.93; it finished the week at $26.42.
Crude oil charts
The following chart shows last week’s trend of (week ending on September 16th) WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (October delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:
In the chart, Brent spot oil and WTI prices didn’t change much during the week and ended very near the price levels they have started.
The second chart shows the daily percent changes (i.e. changes around the trend) of crude oil price (WTI spot oil, WTI future, Brent spot oil):
Brent oil prices declined during the first three days of the week only to sharply rise on Thursday by nearly 2.7%; on the other hand, WTI spot oil zigzagged during the week with no clear direction.
Petroleum Stocks –highlights:
According to the latest EIA report of the US oil market, for the week ending on September 9th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles fell last week by 5.6 million barrels to reach 1,779.2 million barrels. U.S. Ending Stocks of crude oil also sharply fell by 7.7 million barrels to 1,042.3 million barrels.
The chart below shows the petroleum and oil stockpiles levels compared to the WTI crude oil prices during 2011.
For the complete petroleum stocks review see here.
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