With OPEC to discuss a second increase in output, oil prices have jumped to over $58 a barrel.
OPEC will discuss a possible increase this week as refineries in the U.S. may not have the means to increase output.
According to a Forbes article:
“Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 77 cents to $58.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe. That topped the intraday high of $57.70 a barrel reached Friday, before the contract settled at a record $57.27.
Heating oil prices rose more than a cent to $1.6754 a gallon (3.8 liters), while unleaded gasoline rose nearly a cent to $1.7405 a gallon (3.8 liters).
Brent crude rose 48 cents to $56.99 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange, after crossing the $57 a barrel level earlier in the session.”
“I think if prices continue to increase, we should increase the 500,000 (barrels a day),” said OPEC President Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
Gasoline prices have reached records for a third day as well.
A Bloomberg article says:
“That season, when motor-fuel demand peaks in the U.S., runs from Memorial Day at the end of May to Labor Day at the beginning of September. The nation’s stockpiles have dropped in the past four weekly Energy Department reports and the last two declines were bigger than expected.
High gasoline prices correspond to falling inventories in terms of the number of days of consumption that can be met, according to the U.S. Energy Department. U.S. motorists used an average of 8.9 million barrels of gasoline a day this year, up 2.2 percent from the same period in 2004, the department’s data shows. Cars, trucks and vans in the U.S., the world’s largest oil consumer, burn about 10 percent of global oil supplies.”
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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