Headlines
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Higher U.S. gasoline stocks weigh on crude price
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Gold continues setting new record highs
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Alcoa earnings and weak greenback support base metals price
Brent and Distillates
On Wednesday crude prices decreased due to the latest EIA report. Stockpiles of gasoline increased by 2.9 mln.b in the week ended Oct. 2 against 1.3 mln.b expected by analysts. Also distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 700 kb on the week. On the contrary the EIA also reported a drop of 1 mln.b in crude inventories, as imports fell by 4.5%, countering analysts' projections of a 2.2 mln.b build.
The EIA on Tuesday announced an upward revision in its expectations for world oil consumption. The revision amounts to an increase of 200kb/d for the remainder of 2009 and for 2010, in large part because of improved expectations for Asian growth. Even after the upward revisions, world oil demand for 2009 and 2010 is projected to be below last year's level of 85.46 mln.b/d. For 2009, daily demand is pegged at 83.67 mln.b, rising to an estimated 84.77 mln.b/d for 2010.
Officials from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Russia dismissed a U.K. press report that secret meetings had been held to consider adopting a basket of currencies to trade oil instead of the US dollar.
ExxonMobil has agreed to acquire large stake in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field from its private equity owners, paying about 4bln.$ for one of Africa’s most potentially lucrative oil discoveries in recent years. The purchase underscores a growing interest in West Africa by the oil majors, which have been limited in their ability to expand by rising resource nationalism in places such as Russia and Venezuela. Africa has seemed a better bet, where military instability is the big risk.
Ecuador's total oil exports rose to 366,280 b/d in August from 340,383 b/d in the same month last year.
Japan's crude oil inventories jumped last week from a 29-year low as refinery production fell with several plants entering turnaround and as firms cut refining to offset weak demand. Commercial crude stockpiles held by domestic refiners climbed 9.2 % to 94.77 mln.b in the week to Oct. 3 from the week before.
Nigeria's main militant group (MEND - Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) on Wednesday said it will resume attacks against Africa's biggest oil and gas industry once its three-month old ceasefire expires at the end of next week.
