West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was set to post its longest run of weekly rise on Friday as the cold weather in North America boosted demand for heating oil in the world’s largest economy.
The energy markets is about to cap another week of strong gains, with Brent Crude hovering above $110 a barrel, buoyed by supply disruption in Africa, while WTI crude was little changed above $102 a barrel, squeezing the spread between the two contracts to the tightest in four months. As of 03:06 ET:
- ICE Brent Crude was down 0.02% at $110.28 a barrel
- NYMEX WTI Crude was down 0.11% at $102.64 a barrel
Expectations for an extremely cold weather in the US continue to support prices, while the latest numbers by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed yesterday that:
- Distillate inventories, including heating oil and diesel, dropped by 339 thousand barrel to 112.7 million in the week through Feb. 14.
- Crude supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell for the third week by 1.7 million barrel last week to 35.9 million.
- Total US crude inventories climbed by 973 thousand barrels, missing analysts` median forecast to rise by 2.25 million.
- Total supply of natural gas was 1,436 billion cubic feet last week, EIA said. The number was 982 billion cubic feet less than a year ago and 748 billion cubic feet below the five-year average level.
Natural gas jumped higher early today, snapping losses in the previous session, also boosted by expectations for further cold weather this weekend.
- NYMEX Natural Gas was up 3.02% at $9.247 per million British thermal units in electronic trading.
The US dollar rebounded against a six-currency basket setting stage for its first weekly gain in three, after EIA data showed gas supplies were much lower last week. Meanwhile, investors are anticipating another round of US housing data later in the day.
- USDIX rose for a third day around 80.37 compared with yesterday`s close at 80.19.