Crude registers strong weekly gains

Prices rise more than 13% as traders anticipate big production cut by OPEC

Crude prices fell on Friday, 12 December, 2008. Prices fell but were off their intra day lows after the auto bailout plan hit a brake at Washington on Friday.

On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $46.28/barrel (lower by $1.7 or 2.8%) on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the day, prices touched a low of $43.32. Prices reached a high of $147 on 11 July but have dropped almost 63% since then. On 5 Dec, 2008, prices touched a low of $40.5. For the week, prices ended higher by almost 13%. Prior to that, prices coughed up 25% in the week before that. That was the largest weekly loss for crude in past twenty five years. For this year in 2008, crude prices have dropped 43%.

For the month of November, crude prices ended lower by 19.7%. Before this, for the month of October, 2008, crude prices had ended lower by 32.6%, the biggest monthly drop since 1983.

As per the latest developments in the auto deal workout, the Senate refused to provide U.S. automakers with $14 billion in bailout money.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ended meeting in Cairo last month without any decision on a production cut to restore crude prices. OPEC President and Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said he expects oil demand to decline from a month ago, and said the group would take necessary action on 17 December when it meets in Oran, Algeria.