The crude oil yesterday gave up its previous day's gains following the EIA Inventory report that
limited on speculation that warmer weather in the northern zone of US may reduce the demand
for heating oil.
The US is the world's largest consumer of residential heating oil where heating oil is often used
in the central heating of homes and small buildings.
As per the EIA report, Inventories of distillate fuel, a combination of heating oil and diesel,
surged 1.09 million barrels to 161.3 million. A warmer than normal weather is going to hit
in most consuming region i.e. Northeast and Midwest zone of US from Dec. 25 to Dec. 29,
according to Commodity Weather Group in Bethesda, Maryland.
At NYMEX, crude for January contract is trading at $88.06 per barrel, down by 0.56 cents, after
opening at $88.48 per barrel at 05:34 EST. while, Brent crude oil for is trading at $91.79 per
barrel, down by 0.36 cents, after opening at $92.04 per barrel.
While on the Domestic front, Crude future for December contract is trading at Rs. 4,007 a barrel,
down by 0.32%, after opening at Rs. 4,025 a barrel at MCX. While, Crude future for January
contract is trading at Rs. 4,062.00 a barrel, down by 0.27%, after opening at Rs. 4,085 a barrel at
MCX. (At 18:04 IST today)
The Crude future climbed to $88.62 a barrel at NYMEX, the highest settlement price since Dec
7, after the EIA report in which crude inventories declined by 9.85 million barrels to 346 million.
Despite of the decline in the crude oil inventories, US refiners operated 88 percent of capacity
which was the most since September.