Oil Prices Hold Above $65 Per Barrel By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 22, 6:45 AM ET
VIENNA, Austria - Oil prices held above $65 a barrel Monday as saboteurs forced a halt to Iraq's southern pipeline exports. That offset earlier price declines due to the partial resumption of crude production in Ecuador. Still, analysts cautioned against putting too much emphasis on the effect of the Iraqi outages, saying it was too early to say how long the shortfalls in output would last. Light, sweet crude for September delivery was up 3 cents to $65.38 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. The September contract, which expires later Monday, ended Friday at $65.35, up $2.08 for the day after U.S. warships were fired upon in Jordan and production in Ecuador shut down. Nymex crude for October slipped 4 cents to $65.75 a barrel, after touching a high of $66.14 earlier. Front-month crude futures contracts reached an all-time high of $67.10 on Aug. 12 about 40 percent higher than a year ago. In other Nymex prices, gasoline was down by more than half a cent at $1.8965 a gallon. Heating oil moved up to $1.8295 a gallon, indicating attention shifting from gasoline near the end of the summer driving season to heating oil for winter use. October Brent crude was at $64.35 a barrel, down a cent from Friday's close before server problems forced a trading halt. Iraqi and foreign oil officials said Iraq's oil exports were shut down Monday by a power cut that darkened parts of central and southern Iraq, including the country's only functioning oil export terminals. Exports through the country's other main route, the northern export pipeline to Turkey, have long been halted by incessant sabotage. Iraqi officials said sabotage was also responsible for Monday's blackout, which prevented oil from being pumped into tankers waiting at berths. Iraqi pipelines are a frequent target for insurgents, as a large quantity of the oil heads for Western nations and disrupting the flow of crude is seen as a way to destabilize the U.S.-supported government. But chief analyst Ehsan Ul-Haq of PVM Oil Associates in Vienna said the Iraqi supply disruption was not yet a major market factor because "it's still not quite clear whether (Iraqi) exports will be affected for a long time." He said the next snapshot of supplies presented later this week by U.S. inventory figures could send prices up should they show a further decline in gasoline stocks. "People will also be looking to China and India," Ul-Haq said. Chinese consumers have been hit by fuel shortages due to the profitability of exporting refined products, and in India, demand has been less than expected recently, in part because of the monsoon season. Some stability came from South America, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his country will loan oil to Ecuador until its domestic production stabilizes, easing concerns that the Andean nation's export commitments to the United States might not be met. "Chavez's move was quite good news for the market," said chief commodities strategist Tetsu Emori at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo, Japan. "It came as something of a surprise to most because Chavez has always been bullish. But it's a welcome move." Violent protests erupted in Ecuador last Tuesday, bringing oil production to a standstill. Production partially resumed Saturday when demonstrators and the government declared a truce. Ecuador's state-run oil company Petroecuador on Saturday restored 33,167 barrels of crude output in the northeast Amazon, but that was still about 168,000 barrels short of normal daily capacity. Such an amount does not hurt actual supply, but the thin layer of spare capacity has markets on edge for any unexpected outage that could derail deliveries in a time of high demand. Ecuador said production would not return to normal until October at the earliest. ___ http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050822/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices_4 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h9206ns/M=323294.6903899.7846637.3022212/D=groups/S=1705329729:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124768922/A=2896125/R=0/SIG=11llkm9tk/*http://www.donorschoose.org/index.php?lc=yahooemail";>Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education</a>!</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. http://www.ppi-india.org *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi 4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
