Crude registers marginal gains

Prices remain almost unchanged after production is resumed back at Nigeria

Crude futures remained almost unchanged today, Tuesday, 24 June, 2008. Prices rose marginally after Royal Dutch Shell Plc said that it resumed production at its Nigerian Bonga field that was attacked last week. But prices had peaked $139 as traders digested production news from Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

Crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for August delivery today closed at $137/barrel (higher by $0.26/barrel or 0.2%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded as high as $138.85 during intra day trading. Last week, it closed lower by 0.2%. Prices are 94% higher than a year ago. For the year, crude is up by 38% till date.

Shell shut Bonga output on 19 June after militants attacked a production vessel at the field 75 miles off the coast of Nigeria. Nigeria was overtaken by Angola in April as Africa's biggest oil producer because attacks cut the country's output.

At a meeting of oil producers and consumers, during last weekend, on Sunday, Saudi Arabia said it would raise its daily production by 200,000 barrels in July. That's on top of the increase of 300,000 barrels a day announced in May.

At the currency markets on Tuesday, the dollar fell against the euro before the Fed's meeting on interest rates today and tomorrow. The dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of trading partners was at 73.257, compared with 73.470 late Monday.

Brent crude oil for June settlement today rose $0.55 (0.4%) to $136.46 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The London benchmark rose 54% in FY 2007, the most since 1999 when prices more than doubled.

Natural gas in New York declined on an outlook for cooler weather in the biggest gas-consuming regions of the U.S. Natural gas for July delivery fell 19.2 cents (1.5%) to settle at $13.011 per million British thermal units.

Against this backdrop, August reformulated gasoline rose by 0.8 cent to close at $3.4635 a gallon and July heating oil rose 1.7 cents to finish at $3.8136 a gallon.

At the MCX, crude oil for July delivery closed at Rs 5,838/barrel, lower by Rs 45 (0.76%) against previous day’s close. Natural gas for July delivery closed at Rs 559.9/mmbtu, lower by Rs 11.7/mmbtu (2%).