Crude at new high

Crude on the verge of touching the $100 mark

Supply concerns, tumbling dollar and storm forecasts sent crude prices to a new all time high today, 6 November, 2007 as crude crossed the $97/barrel mark.

For the day ending Tuesday, 06 November, 2007, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for December delivery closed at $96.67/barrel (higher by $2.69/barrel or 2.9%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose to $97.1/barrel during intra day trading. Oil prices rose 16% in October, 2007, the biggest one-month gain since September 2004.

Brent crude oil for December settlement rose $2.69 (3%) to $93.18 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

As per reports, a storm forecast forced BP and ConocoPhillips to evacuate workers and cut production. Conoco and BP said they have started evacuating workers from some facilities before the weather worsens.

It was also reported today that an oil pipeline in north-central Yemen was blown up by tribesmen.

Regarding tomorrow’s weekly inventory report by the Energy Department, crude inventories are expected to show a third weekly consecutive drop.

In the currency market today, the dollar traded down against the euro after sinking to new record lows, as investors weighed ongoing credit woes and surging crude-oil futures. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, dropped 0.5% at 76.05.

Natural gas bears drops though crude continues to rise

Natural gas in New York fell on an outlook for inventories to expand to a record and as weather forecasters called for mild weather. Gas for December delivery declined 13.6 cents (1.7%) to settle at $7.863 per million British thermal units.

Against this backdrop, Heating oil for December delivery rose 6.46 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $2.6085 a gallon in New York. Futures touched $2.6198, the highest since trading began in 1978. Gasoline for December delivery rose 5.29 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $2.434 a gallon in New York.

At the MCX, crude oil for November delivery closed at Rs 3790/barrel, higher by Rs 45 (1.2%) against previous day’s close. Natural gas closed at Rs 309.7/mmtbu as against previous close of Rs 319.4/mmtbu, lower by Rs 10/ mmtbu.

OPEC has planned to boost daily oil production by 500,000 barrels. OPEC's production target is 27.2 million barrels a day, beginning 1 Nov. OPEC, has decided to raise their daily output by 500,000 barrels per day, starting 1 November.

Attacks on oil facilities in Middle East and tight supplies from OPEC have bolstered crude prices this year. As per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, tight global energy supplies are expected to keep energy prices high through 2008.

The Energy Department will come out with the weekly inventory report on crude oil and fuel products for week ended Friday, 05 November tomorrow morning at Washington at 10.30 E.T