Crude prices close higher after OPEC leaves production plan unchanged
Crude oil prices rose today, Monday, 19 November, 2007 after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) left production unchanged at a weekend meeting in Riyadh. Trading was quite choppy in nature ahead of upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, but light trading also fuelled volatility.
For the day ending Monday, 19 November, 2007, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $94.64/barrel (higher by $0.80/barrel or 0.9%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 70% from a year ago.
Brent crude oil for December settlement rose $0.66 (0.7%) to $92.28 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.
As per OPEC, the oil market was well-supplied and recent gains were due to speculation and beyond the group's control. OPEC is scheduled to discuss oil production for the first quarter of 2008 at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on 5 December. OPEC's finance ministers will also discuss the effect of the weak U.S. dollar on oil revenue before the next meeting.
Last week, prices rose to $98.62/barrel during intra day trading on 7 November, 2007. Oil prices had rose 16% in October, 2007, the biggest one-month gain since September 2004.
Natural gas, gasoline and heating oil – all end lower
Natural gas fell in New York amid speculation inventories are ample to meet winter heating needs. Gas for December delivery fell 21.4 cents (2.7%) to settle at $7.787 per million British thermal units.
Against this backdrop, December reformulated gasoline finished up 0.62 cent at $2.3816 a gallon and December heating oil gained 1.71 cents at $2.6042 a gallon.
Last week, OPEC reduced its fourth-quarter estimate of global oil demand growth to 1.97%, down from 2.1%, citing warmer winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere and the higher price of gasoline. The cartel also trimmed this year's world oil demand growth to 1.4% from 1.5%, but the cartel kept the first quarter of next year unchanged at 1.8%.
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.