| Crude oil hits 45 a barrel { August 10 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f19cace6-eab9-11d8-9293-00000e2511c8.htmlhttp://news.ft.com/cms/s/f19cace6-eab9-11d8-9293-00000e2511c8.html
Crude oil hits $45 a barrel for first time By Kevin Morrison Published: August 10 2004 11:42 | Last updated: August 10 2004 16:49
US crude futures hit $45 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the first time ever on Tuesday its eighth consecutive session of record highs with prices lifted by production concerns in Iraq.
However, prices later fell from their peaks after Iraq said it had resumed full oil production in its southern oilfields after repairing a pipeline that was blown up by saboteurs on Monday.
September Nymex WTI reached $45.04 a barrel before easing to settle at $44.50 in New York, down 34 cents on Monday's closing price. The peak exceeded the previous high of $44.77.
IPE Brent for September delivery also hit a new high, touching $41.69 a barrel and beating its record of $41.65 set on Monday, before falling to $41.27, a drop of 29 cents.
The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US energy department, said in its August monthly outlook that some reduction in prices was likely if increased production continued to flow and inventories build.
“However, short of a serious slowdown in demand during the coming months, the floor for prices probably remains above $30 for the foreseeable future,” the EIA said.
It said the projected average WTI price for the third quarter was now almost $41 per barrel, about $4 per barrel higher than in the previous monthly outlook.
“Although the current high levels of Opec production are expected to push WTI prices below $40 per barrel on average by the fourth quarter [of] 2004, a sustained sharp decline in crude oil prices is unlikely during 2005 because world oil demand is expected to continue its strong growth, keeping petroleum inventories tight,” it said.
The EIA cut its third-quarter global demand to 81.40m barrels a day from 81.41m b/d, and raised the fourth-quarter demand to 83.40m b/d from 83.38m b/d.
Gold was marginally lower at $399.25/$400.00 a troy ounce compared with Monday's late quote of $400.50/$401.00 in New York.
Gold miners continued to lower the amount of gold they forward sell, otherwise known as hedging. GFMS, the precious metals consultancy, said in a quarterly report that gold miners in the second quarter cut their hedge position by 3.4m ounces versus a 2.73m ounce cut in the first quarter. GFMS said the total hedge position stood at 64.2m ounces at the end of the second quarter, compared with 71.63m a year ago.
“The decline [in hedging] was again a combination of buy-backs, book restructuring and producers delivering into committed positions without doing any fresh hedging,” said Bruce Alway, gold analyst at GFMS.
Platinum prices rose $12 to $842/$847.00 a troy ounce from its late quote in New York in the previous session.
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