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Oil prices hit a new high while other energy futures were mixed Tuesday after the government reported surprisingly large declines in oil inventories and an unexpected increase in gasoline supplies.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 64 cents to $82.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after hitting a new trading high of $82.51 earlier. October gasoline rose 2.53 cents to $2.0856 a gallon.
Heating oil futures fell 0.14 cent to $2.2409 a gallon and Nymex natural gas futures fell 20 cents to $6.368 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, November Brent crude rose 63 cents to $78.22 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported that crude inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels during the week ended Sept. 14, more than double the 1.5 million-barrel decline analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected. However, crude inventories remain at the upper end of their average range for this time of year, the EIA said.
Gasoline supplies rose by 400,000 barrels, the EIA said, countering analyst predictions of a 1.3 million-barrel decline.
Refinery utilization fell by 0.9 percentage point to 89.6 percent of capacity. Analysts expected a decline of 0.5 percentage point.
Distillate inventories, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 1.5 million barrels, above the 1.1 million analysts expected.
Crude oil imports averaged 9.8 million barrels last week, an increase of 242,000 barrels per day. Gasoline imports averaged 1 million barrels a day, down slightly from a week earlier.
Demand for gasoline averaged nearly 9.5 million barrels a day over the last four weeks, the EIA said, 0.5 percent above the same period last year.
Published by John Wilen, AP Business Writer

Labels: Crude Inventories, Gasoline, ICE, NMX, Oil Prices

Alan Greenspan said the odds of a recession have grown since earlier this year, even though "the economy is not doing badly at this stage."
In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, the former Federal Reserve chairman put the odds of a recession at greater than one in three. "But best I can judge, it is less than 50 percent," he said.
Greenspan's one-in-three prediction earlier this year rocked Wall Street, which has been suffering through a period of turbulence. A deepening housing slump and a spreading credit crunch have raised fears on Wall Street, on Capitol Hill and on Main Street about the country's economic health.
Many analysts are counting on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates on Tuesday to provide some relief.
On other issues, Greenspan said the United States must look at ways to reduce gasoline use both as a matter of national security and to protect the environment.
Greenspan said he favors a tax on gasoline to help curb demand. But recognizing that this could be an "undue burden" on poor people, he suggested a rebate of some sort. There is a national gas tax of 18.4 cents a gallon.
Source: AP

Labels: Alan Greenspan, Economy, Gasoline, Oil, Recession, Tax, Wall Street