Today’s average price for a gallon of unleaded in Kitsap is $3.32, up a penny from Tuesday and up 51 cents from this time last year. Oil prices continue to rise, signaling no downward turn in the near future, at least. Here’s some explanation of that:
Associated Press
Oil prices moved up toward $85 a barrel Wednesday after a report
showed U.S. crude supplies unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting
demand may be improving.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for March delivery
was up 27 cents at $84.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New
York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 49 cents to settle at
$84.32 on Tuesday.
In London, Brent crude for April delivery gained 62 cents to
$102.26 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Analysts said the wide gap between the Nymex and Brent contracts,
over $14 for contracts expiring in April, would likely hold for
now.
“The shrinking supply of North Sea oil should continue to support
the price of Brent, especially as demand for crude oil from this
region is robust,” said a report from Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
“This suggests that Brent will retain a price premium over WTI,
even if the price gap does narrow in the coming months, as we
expect.”
The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude
inventories fell 354,000 barrels last week while analysts surveyed
by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had
forecast an increase of 2.8 million barrels. Crude supplies at the
key Cushing, Oklahoma terminal rose 250,000 barrels.
Inventories of gasoline rose 1.2 million barrels and distillates
dropped 1.2 million barrels, the API said.
The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reports
its weekly supply data — the market benchmark — later
Wednesday.
“Recent (API) surveys have been exactly in line with the energy
department’s when it comes to Cushing, which bodes well for prices
today,” energy consultant The Schork Report said. “If the energy
department corroborates, the (oil price) bottom may be behind us
for now.”
In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil rose 1.4
cents to $2.743 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.4 cents to $2.5028 a
gallon. Natural gas futures were down 1.9 cents at $3.957 per 1,000
cubic feet.
