Headlines
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Crude oil prices hover between economic slowdown worries and OPEC threads to cut quotas
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Gold remains above 900$/oz level
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Copper gains expecting huge Chinese demand
Brent and Distillates
Brent fell slightly in volatile trade on Monday, interrupting a three-day gain as traders set aside the latest evidence of OPEC's production cuts to focus on forecasts for a deepening global economic downturn. However, Brent spot gained and WTI rose as traders focused on short-term factors like cold U.S. weather and an Australian cyclone, despite forecasts of a further rise in U.S. crude stocks.
A cyclone off the west Australian coast has shut down almost half of the country's oil output since Sunday. Oil and gas firms operating off Australia's northwest coast have in total shut off 218 kb/d of oil production -- about 45% of the country's total production.
OPEC could meet before March if Brent crude oil prices fall to below 40$/b, the group's president was cited by Angolan weekly newspaper O Pais. Although Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said he only expected the next gathering of OPEC to take place, as planned, in Vienna on March 15, he added the group could meet sooner if oil prices suddenly dropped.
U.S. President Barack Obama believes that oil and other energy prices are not likely to stay cheap for long, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday. "The president believes that the price of oil and the price of energy is not likely to stay at the level it is now," he told a briefing.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country would support a production cut of 4 mln. more barrels of oil by OPEC if necessary to bolster the price of crude. Chavez, speaking on a radio program, said the Venezuelan oil basket has averaged 35.85$ this year, well below the budgeted 60$/b. Venezuela, the largest oil exporter in the Western Hemisphere, depends on oil sales to finance half of its budget and 93% of export revenue. The country supplies about 12% of crude imports to the U.S.
China's oil product consumption rose 11.9% last year to 215 mln.t, the China Petroleum and Chemical Association said today. The growth rate was 5% higher than in 2007. China used 365 mln.t of crude oil last year, up 5.8 %. The growth rate was 1.5% points below the 2007 level.
