Crude oil stayed above 54 dollars a barrel on Thursday and edged toward record territory, driven by anxiety over winter heating-fuel supplies. December light sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 24 cents to 54.65 dollars, while the November contract touched 55.20 dollars before settling at 54.92. In London, Brent crude for December added 48 cents to 51.00 dollars.
US Department of Energy data released Wednesday showed distillate stocks, covering diesel and heating oil, fell 1.9 million barrels to 119 million barrels in the week to 15 October 2004, a fifth straight weekly decline. The drawdown was roughly double analyst forecasts. Heating oil alone fell 500,000 barrels to 49.5 million. Analysts pointed to Gulf Coast pipeline bottlenecks and hurricane damage in the Gulf of Mexico as contributing factors. Some saw room for prices to climb past 60 dollars.
OPEC's president urged both member and non-member producers to boost output ahead of northern-hemisphere winter demand. The cartel had agreed at its Vienna meeting the previous month to raise its production ceiling by one million barrels per day to 27 million from 1 November, but the announcement drew little market reaction. OPEC's next meeting was scheduled for Cairo on 10 December.
Eurozone finance ministers voiced growing concern. French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy pressed EU colleagues to adopt "effective measures" quickly to shield economic growth from the price surge.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.