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After a steep fall off early this week, oil prices rocketed again on Thursday after the previous day’s news that crude stocks were down.
In London, the price of a barrel of crude was back up to $76.65 after falling back to just above $75 at one point yesterday. It even reached $77.16 at one stage on Thursday. In New York, prices were up 93 cents to $76.81 having earlier risen to an 11-month high of 77.24 usd.
A rise in speculative buying was likely to have added to the sharp rice rises. Increased speculation that OPEC may increase production in September did little to calm rising prices as demand for oil continues to grow.
Rising demand, stoppages at US refineries and increased interest from investors are thought to have contributed to the recent sharp increase in prices. However, a number of refinery restarts are expected in coming months.
Comments made by Mohammed Al Hamli at the weekend are also thought to have contributed to the dip in oil prices. The OPEC president expressed the organization’s “concern” about rising prices.
He also revealed OPEC’s aim of keeping oil prices somewhere between 60-65 USD per barrel.
OPEC is due to meet in Vienna on September 11 to decide on whether it needs to increase production levels. At this stage it looks like the cartel will have to raise production significantly if it is to have any chance of reaching its target oil price.
23:34
Posted on Jul-27-2007
