Text 25185, 75 rader
Skriven 2006-11-17 08:43:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Oil
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Will the liberals and the dems blame GW and the oil companies for the falling
prices ?  Will they call more congressional hearings ?

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http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/17/markets/oil.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

Oil falls to new yearly lows
Swelling inventories, doubts about OPEC cuts and mild weather predictions
contribute to crude's decline Thursday and Friday.
November 17 2006: 7:24 AM EST


LONDON (Reuters) -- Oil prices continued their downward trajectory Friday,
shedding more than a dollar after a $2.50 rout the previous session driven by
fund-selling and pressure from high levels of fuel stocks in the world's
leading oil consumer the United States.

Selling spanned the commodity complex and drew further momentum ahead of the
expiry of the front-month U.S. crude futures contract at the close of trade
Monday.

U.S. crude was trading at $55.16, down $1.10. Since oil hit a record high of
$78.40 for U.S. crude in July, prices have fallen by around 28 percent.

London Brent crude was 37 cents lower at $58.17.

"There is also an accumulation of news: mild weather, a slowing economy and
fairly ineffectual noises from OPEC about cutting," said Andrew Hutchinson at
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

He said the decline could also be related to falls in base metals such as
copper and aluminum, which have also lost around 8 percent from last Friday's
opening levels in part because of higher levels of inventory.

Oil markets have traded in a roughly $58-$62 barrel range for around six weeks,
the longest period of range-bound trading since the same time a year ago.

Traders say prices could now be breaking below that band, dragged down by ample
stocks, relatively mild weather and doubts about the ability of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to enforce output cuts.

Ample stocks
U.S. stocks of refined products have begun to decline, but overall crude
inventories are 13.8 million barrels higher than a year ago.

While lower oil prices have spurred product consumption, warmer-than-usual
weather has sapped heating oil demand.

The U.S. National Weather Service on Thursday forecast warmer-than-normal
weather for the U.S. northeast, the world's top heating oil market, from
December until February, although other forecasts are mixed.

OPEC producers agreed at an emergency meeting last month to cut supplies 1.2
million barrels per day (bpd) from Nov. 1.

More bullish analysts say this reduction could begin to bite at the very moment
when product stocks are drained by peak winter demand.

"We have more than enough oil off the market to re-tighten the picture in
December, and into 2007," said Paul Sankey, research analyst at Deutsche Bank.

But the signs so far are that the producer group is only implementing its cut
in part.

Tanker tracking consultancy Petrologistics showed OPEC production at 27.2
million bpd in November, down 1.1 million bpd from the consultancy's relatively
high October assessment but well below OPEC's target production of around 26.3
million bpd.

"OPEC is way over where they're supposed to be," said Conrad Gerber, head of
Petrologistics.

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