🚀 go-pugleaf

Paul J. Berg wrote:
> Oil climbed above $71 a barrel on Thursday, nearing a nine-month high,
> after OPEC's president reiterated the exporter group was pumping enough
> crude to satisfy world markets. OPEC President Mohammed al-Hamli said
> oil supplies were "sufficient currently" and there was no need for an
> emergency meeting. 
> 
> Consumers have been urging the 12-member group to produce more oil to
> lower prices. London Brent crude, currently seen as a better gauge of
> the global market than US oil, was up 58 cents at $71.60 a barrel at
> 1528 GMT. US crude was up $1.15 at $67.11. "The market is reacting to
> the OPEC President saying the cartel has no intention of raising
> output," said Nauman Barakat, senior vice president at Macquarie Futures
> USA. 
> 
> Prices rose earlier on headlines from the Middle East saying Turkish
> troops had entered northern Iraq. Turkey's foreign ministry and military
> denied Wednesday's report, but a source said troops had conducted a
> limited raid across the mountainous border. Data showing US refiners
> were struggling to boost summer gasoline production and Cyclone Gonu's
> disruption of Omani oil and gas exports also kept Brent crude within
> sight of late May's $71.80 high. Weekly US inventory data showing a
> surprise drop in refinery utilisation rates last week added to gains,
> overshadowing an unseasonally large 3.5 million barrel build in gasoline
> stocks thanks to a surge in imports. 
> 
> With gasoline stocks still in a near 10-million-barrel deficit compared
> to their normal levels and refiners utilisation falling to below 90 per
> cent, the weakest early-June level in 15 years, traders remained anxious
> over driving season supplies. "The fall in refinery runs ultimately
> continues to stoke concerns over supply availability," wrote Harry
> Tchilinguirian, senior oil market analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity
> Derivatives. US winter heating oil stocks are 16 per cent below the
> five-year average, noted Frederic Lasserre, head of commodities research
> at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking.
> 


Ssshhh...you'll disturb paranoiac Homu...