Crude Falls, Inventories Drop, So Does Demand
Posted on: Sep 25th, 2008 | By Doug Casey | Filed under Financial News, Oil Investment & Alternative Energy
In the energy market Wednesday, crude for November delivery pushed past $109, but then declined to close at $105.73/barrel, down 88 cents. In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Information Administration said that crude stocks were down 1.5 million barrels for the week ending September 19, bringing the total decline to 15.7 million barrels in five weeks.
Gasoline stockpiles fell 5.9 million barrels, for a total of 38.4 million barrels in nine weeks, and distillates were down 4.2 million barrels. And in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, refinery utilization dropped to 66.7% of capacity, off from 77.4% a week earlier, and the lowest refinery-capacity utilization on record.
In addition the EIA said that total products supplied over the past four weeks, a good indication of demand, averaged 19.5 million barrels a day, down 5.3% from the same time a year ago. Of that, daily demand for motor gasoline averaged 9 million barrels, down 3.5% year over year.
Small wonder, then, that the “futures markets reacted in less than bullish fashion as demand readings trumped stock declines,” as Linda Rafield, senior oil analyst at Platts wrote.
Source: Crude falls – Inventories drop, but so does demand.
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