Crude ends substantially higher

Prices give up earlier losses


Crude prices reversed early losses and closed higher on Friday, 18 April, 2008. Supply concerns from Nigeria overpowered the effect of the rising dollar.

Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for May delivery closed at $116.7/barrel (higher by $2/barrel or 2%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices touched $112/barrel during intra day trading. Crude prices are 6.2% higher this week and 90% higher on a yearly basis. For the year, crude is up by 20% till date.

Against this backdrop, May reformulated gasoline gained 3.15 cents to $2.9893 a gallon and May heating oil rose 2.49 cent to $3.2923 a gallon. May natural gas futures rallied 19.2 cents to $10.575 per million British thermal units.