Crude oil prices tumbled down during last week as the IEA stated it will release 60 million crude oil barrels from its oil reserves; last week’s speech by Fed chairman – Ben Bernanke, in which he didn’t say there will be a new stimulus plan caused the US dollar to rise compared with major currencies. This news also is among the reasons fort the drop in major commodities’ prices during last week.
Let review the changes during last week (June 20th to 24th) 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 declined during last week by 2.57%; its weekly average price also decreased by 3.33% as it reached $92.68 per barrel, compared with last week’s $95.87 per barrel. The average daily percent change of crude oil price (WTI) was -0.45%.
Europe Brent spot oil price also shed 5.4% from beginning to end, and its average price decreased by 5.24% compared with previous week’s average.
The difference between the Brent and WTI spot prices also fell sharply and averaged at $17.98, and it finished the week at $15.32.
These findings suggest that despite the drop in crude oil prices, there might be a tighter oil market in Europe than in U.S. which could interpret the widening of the gap between Brent oil and WTI spot oil.
Crude oil charts
The following chart presents last week’s trend of WTI spot oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (July delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:
The chart presents a downward trend for WTI and Brent spot oil prices mainly during the second half of the week.
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):
This chart shows that Brent oil and WTI spot oil started the week with a moderate rise, but by Wednesday crude oil prices shifted direction and tumbled down mainly on Thursday.
Petroleum Stocks –highlights:
In last week’s EIA report on petroleum stocks, consumption and production, U.S. Petroleum and oil stocks bounced back from their fall a couple of weeks ago and rose during last week by 3.084 million barrels, or by 0.17%. For the week ending on June 17th crude oil stocks reached 1,791 million barrels.
The chart below presents the downward trend of WTI spot oil price and the upward trend of petroleum and oil stocks in recent weeks.
For the complete petroleum stocks review see here.
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For further reading:
Previous issues of weekly report:
- Oil prices fell sharply during week – Weekly recap 13-17 June
- Oil prices moderately inclined during week – Weekly recap 6-10 June