Crude Oil Prices – Weekly Recap 2-6 January

Crude oil started off the first week of 2012 with very sharp gains in crude oil price on the first couple of days as many oil traders became bullish on oil. As the week progressed oil prices changed direction and started to fall. By the end of the week, WTI oil price rose by 2.76% and Brent price by 5.09%; as a result, the difference between Brent oil and WTI oil rose to $11.50/b on Friday. 

 Here is a short recap for the recent development of oil price (Brent and WTI), and a summary of the recent EIA oil stockpiles report for the week of January 2nd to 6th:

Crude Oil Price – Highlights

Table crude oil prices - 2-6 January 2012WTI (spot) increased during last week by 2.76%; its weekly average price also increased by 2.63% to $101.56 per barrel, compared with last week’s $99.76 per barrel. The average daily percent change of oil price (WTI) was 0.70%.

NYMEX Futures Price (February delivery) also rose by 2.85% during the week, and reached $101.65/b on Friday, January 6th  

Europe Brent oil price also sharply increased during the week by 5.09% and the average price rose by 3.63% compared with previous week’s average.

The difference of Brent over WTI spot prices changed direction and increased during the week; its average premium was $10.20; it finished the week at $11.50. The recent rising tensions in the Middle East (mainly in Iran) may have been among the contributing factors for the recent rise of the premium of Brent over WTI.

Crude Oil Charts

The following charts show the development of (for the week ending on January 6th) WTI oil price, NYMEX Futures Prices (Short term delivery) and Europe Brent spot oil price:

The first chart presents the development of WTI and Brent oil prices during the week: WTI and Brent oil prices presented no clear trend throughout the week.

Crude oil price WTI BRENT oil chart -2-6 January 2012The 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 chart WTI Brent oil - percent change 2-6 January 2012Crude oil price started off the week with very sharp gains but as the week progressed crude oil price fell.

Crude Oil Stockpiles –Highlights:

According to the last EIA report on the U.S Petroleum market, for the week ending on December 30th, U.S. Petroleum and crude oil stockpiles rose by 3.4 million barrels to reach 1,740.26 million barrels. The current oil stockpiles are below the quota from last year: the current crude oil stockpiles are 49.944 million barrels below oil stockpiles levels recorded during the same week in 2010.

For the complete crude oil stockpiles review see here.

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