Monday, October 18, 2004
Oil prices have surged $10 a barrel in the past month.
SINGAPORE (AP) -- The price of crude oil surged past an unprecedented $55 per barrel today amid continued uncertainty over production, high demand and tight supply globally.
The price of crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached $55.02 per barrel mid-morning in Asia, up 9 cents from its settlement price on Friday.
While oil prices are more than 70 percent higher than a year ago, they are still around $25 below the peak inflation-adjusted price reached in 1981.
Crude prices have skyrocketed more than $10 in the past month, primarily over production delays in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Ivan hit last month.
Supply factors
Declines in U.S. distillate stocks, which include heating oil and jet fuel, just before the Northern Hemisphere winter are the latest in a line of supply factors to concern the oil markets.
The U.S. Energy Department said in its weekly petroleum supply report last week that commercially available supplies of heating oil declined by 1.2 million barrels for the week ending Oct. 8, falling to 50.0 million barrels, or 10 percent below year-ago levels.
In the Gulf of Mexico, over 20 million barrels of crude remain shut in as recovery efforts continue to get production levels back to normal.
But with the amount of excess capacity -- immediate surplus supply -- now at about 1 percent of daily demand, now estimated to be above 82 million barrels, any supply outage is expected to factor into prices.