Crude Oil Rises on
Bigger-Than-Expected U.S. Fuel Supply Drop
By Mark Shenk
Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose after an Energy Department report showed that U.S. diesel inventories fell for a fourth week.
Diesel supplies plunged 2.92 million barrels to 78.4 million last week, the report showed. Stockpiles of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, fell 2.68 million barrels to 138.6 million. A drop of 800,000 barrels was expected. Implied demand for distillate fuels averaged 4.4 million barrels a day over the last four weeks, up 8.9 percent from a year ago.
``This is the time of year when you start seeing distillate supplies fall,'' said Tom Bentz, an oil broker with BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc. in New York. ``The report shows that demand is pretty strong. We've been trading in this range for a long time and I don't know if this report will be enough to get us to break out.''
Crude oil for December delivery rose $1.12, or 1.9 percent, to $60.05 a barrel at 12:14 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are little changed from a year ago. Futures have traded in a range of $56.55 to $61.79 for the past month.
``We sold off yesterday and are rising today. I'm not reading too much into this move,'' Bentz said. ``We'll have to break out of the $60.50 area and especially $61.79, the high on Oct. 26, before we can confirm that we've put in a bottom.
The drop left diesel stockpiles 13 percent higher than the five-year average for the period, the department said. Heating- oil inventories rose 248,000 barrels to 60.2 million last week, the report showed. Heating oil supplies were 7.2 percent above the five-year average, the department said.
Total implied demand for petroleum products averaged 21.4 million barrels a day in the past four weeks, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier. The department measures shipments from refineries, pipelines and terminals to calculate demand.
Less Bullish
``The distillate number really sticks out but isn't as bullish as it first appears,'' said Rick Mueller, an analyst with Energy Security Analysis Inc. in Tilburg, the Netherlands. ``Heating-oil supplies actually rose slightly. There was a big decline in diesel but the harvest season is ending so it shouldn't be that significant.''
Crude oil inventories rose 435,000 barrels to 334.7 million last week, the report showed. It left stockpiles 11 percent higher than the five-year average for the week, the department said. An increase of 750,000 barrels was expected, according to the median of 15 responses to a Bloomberg News survey.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on Oct. 20 to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day to bolster prices.
``Oil has hovered around $60 and I'm not sure what will lead to a breakout,'' said Justin Fohsz, a broker at Starsupply Petroleum, a division of GFI Group Inc., in Englewood, New Jersey. ``How effective OPEC will be in making cuts, the Middle East situation and the winter weather will probably be what gets us out of the range.''
U.S. Elections
The U.S. elections may affect energy policy in the country that consumes 25 percent of the world's oil. Democrats captured the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years and moved close to taking control of the Senate.
``The election will probably mean nothing at all in the short term, as far as energy is concerned,'' said Michael Fitzpatrick, vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA in New York. ``In the long term, a Democratic victory might mean higher taxes for big oil, which has become their hobby horse. But it won't mean a heck of a lot for prices.''
Brent crude oil for December settlement rose 99 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $59.47 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at
mshenk1@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: November 8, 2006 12:31 EST