Content area
Full Text
US sour crudes gained ground last week in the US spot market on declines in futures prices and reports that producer group Opec would cut production by 1 million barrels per day. Because refiners are expected to reduce runs for maintenance and as a result of poor margins, any Opec production cut might have limited impact on the physical market in the short run. Moreover, it is unclear whether or not Opec is committed to slashing output, since the group has yet to come out with a formal statement (IOD Oct.6,p1).
Light, sweet benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) lost almost 5% last week to settle below $60 per barrel on Friday. Prices tumbled to a low of $57.75/bbl after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported crude inventories rose by 3.3 million bbl for the week ending Sep. 29 to 328.1 million bbl, which is almost 7% above...