The third trading day of the week on the oil market was marked by a sharp increase in oil prices. Thus, on December 15, oil prices on average rose by 6.7% and reached their highest level since the beginning of the month.
The results of exchange trading in futures contracts for the nearest delivery month were:
- in New York on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the official price of Texas crude WTI/Light Sweet (January) rose by 2 dollars 37 cents (+5.7%) and settled at 44.19 dollars/barrel, with a quotation range during the session of 41.80-44.45 dollars/barrel;
- in London on the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), the official price of the North Sea oil blend Brent (January) rose by 2 dollars 97 cents (+7.6%) and settled at 42.22 dollars/barrel, with a quotation range during the session of 39.71-42.30 dollars/barrel.
The rise in oil prices, according to analysts, was driven on December 15 by three main factors: cold weather in the northeastern United States, a weekly decline in crude oil inventories in the United States, and low heating oil inventories in the country. Thus, air temperatures in the northeastern United States by midweek settled below the average climatic norm, which formed increased demand on the market for heating fuel. However, the US Department of Energy recorded, as of December 10, a weekly decline in commercial oil inventories in the country by 100 thousand barrels, which was a consequence of a decrease in oil imports. Heating oil inventories in the United States as of December 10 also decreased by 100 thousand barrels due to reduced oil refining and increased demand for heating fuel. The northeastern United States is considered the world's main consumer of heating oil, but its inventories in the country are currently 13% below last year's.
Against this backdrop, heating oil futures on NYMEX rose on December 15 by 6.4% during the day and reached their highest mark in two weeks - 1.3900 dollars/gallon, which technically supported the growth of oil futures. The rise in oil prices was also facilitated by the persistence of reduced supplies from Norway and Nigeria. Oil supplies from these two countries remain below the average norm by 225 thousand barrels/day.
The OPEC decision adopted on December 10 in Cairo to reduce oil supplies by 1 million barrels/day to the level of the official oil production quota continued to provide support to the market in the medium term. At the same time, the development of the situation around the bankruptcy of Yukos in order to prevent a future auction for the sale of "Yuganskneftegaz," the company's main oil-producing division, "revived" market fears of a disruption in oil exports from Russia.
On the organized NYMEX trading platform in Dublin, the official price of the North Sea oil blend Brent (January) on December 15 rose by 3 dollars and 5 cents (+7.8%) and settled at 42.23 dollars/barrel, with a quotation range during the session of 39.65-42.23 dollars/barrel. However, the volume of operations in Dublin was still incomparably lower than on the IPE.