http://207.61.18.124/futures/quotes/HU.html

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2001

Answers

How can the Oil Idiots explain this? After all.........there is "not enough capacity at the refineries" and "not sustainable" and "must be those embedded that Paula G-Spot is always whispering about".

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/UG/91

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2001

Related Quotes DJIA NASDAQ S&P 500 ^IIX ^PSE 10434.84 2074.74 1211.07 181.42 703.77 -37.64 +10.12 -5.69 +2.18 - 0.53 delayed 20 mins - disclaimer

Wednesday June 27 3:29 PM ET

Oil Price Takes Big Hit As Stocks Swell

By Richard Mably

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices slumped on Wednesday after a hefty build in U.S. gasoline inventories stoked concerns that American motorists are cutting down on their mileage this summer amid a slowdown in the U.S. economy.

Dealers said added pressure had come from Russia's rejection of an Anglo-American proposal to overhaul the Gulf War (news - web sites) embargo on Iraq by increasing the prospects for a quick resumption of Iraqi deliveries under the U.N.'s oil-for-food program.

London Brent blend crude futures fell $1.33 to $25.66 a barrel and U.S. light plunged $1.43 to $25.55 a barrel -- their biggest one-day moves since March.

But Brent ended off a session low $25.24 a barrel after the U.S. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) cut interest rates a quarter-percentage point in an ongoing effort to bolster the flagging economy, signaling it also stood ready to do more.

Iraq's absence this month from the oil market has failed to make the feared impact on crude prices because inventories, particularly in the United States, are rising amid slower-than-expected demand.

``The problem for the oil market is that U.S. economic growth is declining toward zero and in the rest of the world the decline in growth is accelerating,'' said Gary Ross of New York consultancy PIRA Energy.

``Combine that with the inventory build and that's a recipe for price weakness.''

Weekly U.S. stock figures from the American Petroleum Institute reported a 3.3 million barrel increase in U.S. gasoline tanks to 222.9 million barrels in the week to June 22, the tenth week in a row that stocks have risen.

U.S. gasoline futures prices that hit a record $1.17 in April fell over six cents on Wednesday to 71.2 cents a gallon, their lowest in 17 months.

U.S. SLOWDOWN

Consumption has been crimped by record high pump prices during the spring and fears that a slowdown in the U.S. economy, the world's biggest petroleum importer, may turn into recession.

The U.S. Department of Energy (news - web sites) said on Wednesday that U.S. petroleum products demand over the past four weeks had averaged 18.888 million barrels daily, 4.2 percent less than in the same period last year.

``The lingering concern over stock positions has been completely blown away,'' said John Russel, managing director of consultants PEL Pacific in Bangkok.

The API showed crude stocks rising 565,000 barrels to 313.5 million barrels or 20 million barrels, seven percent, higher than a year ago.

The price slide makes it even less likely that OPEC (news - web sites) producers will see any need at an extraordinary meeting next week to increase supplies, despite consumer country pressure to fill the Iraqi outage.

Cartel president Chakib Khelil of Algeria said on Tuesday that for the moment there was no need to raise production. Several other ministers already have taken that line.

``OPEC looks like it could be off the hook again,'' said Peter Gignoux of Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.

At current prices, a basket of OPEC crudes is valued at less than $25, below the middle of the group's preferred $22-$28 range.

U.N. IN DISARRAY OVER IRAQ

The U.N. is scheduled to resume a debate on revised Iraqi sanctions on Thursday, five days ahead of its self-imposed deadline of July 3 for a vote on proposed changes.

But with Russia opposing, a vote now looks unlikely, leaving dealers to calculate the odds on a quick resumption of the oil-for-food program.

Russia's U.N. envoy Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow would seek next Tuesday to renew oil-for-food without changes, allowing separate negotiations on revising the embargo.

Iraq suspended crude sales of some two million barrels per day, or five percent of world exports, a little over three weeks ago to protest a one-month extension, instead of the normal six months, of the humanitarian exchange.

Baghdad has made clear that a revised sanctions resolution would mean an indefinite suspension of its oil sales. It says it will resume exports if the U.N. agrees a straightforward rollover of the oil-for-food exchange.

Other options still open to the council include adopting a modified version of oil-for-food for six months, or a further short-term extension of the program to allow more time to continue negotiations, diplomats said.

If the modifications to oil-for-food were to include an effort to clamp down on an illegal surcharge Baghdad has been charging for its oil exports, then Iraq could yet persist in its export halt, oil traders said.

Council diplomats say that a short-term extension for anything less than three months is unlikely without hard assurances that Moscow will change its tune.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2001