- Title: USA: OIL PRICES FALL AFTER LATE RALLY ON THE NEW YORK STOCK MARKET
- Date: 12th March 2004
- Summary: (EU) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 12, 2004) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF TRADERS ON NEW YORK MERCANTILE EXCHANGE FLOOR 0.18 2. SCU SOUNDBITE (English) TRADER EVERISTO STANZIALE OF SCS COMMODITIES CORPORATION SAYING: "Market here is re-tracing back, we are trading at about $36 (USD) currently, off about 78 cents from yesterday'
- Embargoed: 27th March 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVABEA8H764C14X5UCSPCDH2SULB
- Story Text: Oil prices retreat after a late rally on Thursday.
Oil prices fell back on Friday after the U.S. Senate
moved to bar more shipments to the U.S. emergency crude
stockpile as a step to reduce prices by keeping more oil in
the market.
London's Brent crude fell 58 cents to $32.25 a barrel
after jumping 84 cents on Thursday. U.S. light crude was
down 58 cents at $36.17 a barrel.
Prices fell on news of a newly passed U.S. Senate
amendment to the fiscal 2005 budget resolution, which would
cancel the delivery of 53 million barrels of crude oil for
the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
The Bush administration aims to fill the SPR to its
maximum capacity of 700 million barrels by next year.
"Market here is re-tracing back, we are trading at
about $36 (USD) currently, off about 78 cents from
yesterday' s close. I think the retracement from the late
day rally that we had in the previous day's session. I
think we are seeing some easement from demand numbers
especially coming from China," said trader Everisto
Stanziale of SCS Commodities Corporation at 1115 EST.
The oil that is deposited to the SPR comes from energy
companies that turn over a portion of the crude they drill
on federal leases as royalty payments to the government.
The SPR news eliminated earlier gains on revived
security fears following Thursday's Madrid bombings and
further strengthened a market boosted by persistent
concerns of a gasoline supply crunch in the United States.
Bombings that rocked the Spanish capital on Thursday,
killing 198 people and wounding more than 1,400, has roiled
financial markets and renewed concern that political
instability could disrupt oil supply.
The Spanish government said it believed Basque
guerrilla group ETA was responsible for the blasts but
continued speculation of al Qaeda involvement renewed
underlying security concern in the world crude market that
relies heavily on Middle East producers.
Stanziale says the bombings were not directly related
to oil prices. He said, "I think the current situation,
especially the terrorist attack in Madrid as sad as it is,
does not directly affect oil prices, as in, they did not
blow up a output station or production pipeline. If that
were to push over into the weakening of the dollar, that
would affect oil prices and therefore would cause the market to
rally."
Analysts also said the civil unrest in OPEC producer
Venezuela continued to haunt the market as it stoked fears
of a repeat of the 2002 oil workers strike that disrupted
exports.
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