Crude oil falls to $33 a barrel> dollar stronger/demand declines/stockpiles increase

[giovonni]

Crude Oil Falls Below $33 a Barrel on Dollar, Contract Expiry

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell below $33 a barrel in New York as the strengthening dollar reduced the appeal of commodity investments at a time when demand is declining and stockpiles are rising.

At Cushing, Oklahoma, where the benchmark oil for New York futures is stored, inventories have climbed to 33 million barrels, the highest since records started four years ago. The February contract will cease trading today, so traders have to sell futures or accept the barrels at a time of falling demand.

“Traders are rolling over to the next month to avoid delivery and the dollar is rallying,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst with VTB Capital in London. “All this against a background of falling demand and easing geopolitical tensions.”

Crude oil for February delivery fell to $32.70, down 10.4 percent from last week’s close and the lowest since Dec. 19, on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. The contract traded at $34.10 a barrel at 1:32 p.m. London time.

Floor trading was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday yesterday. Trades then will be booked today for settlement. The more-actively traded March contract was at $40.28, down 5.4 percent.

The U.S. dollar climbed as high as $1.2921 against the euro, the strongest since Dec. 10, and traded for $1.2965 as of 11:50 a.m. London time. Gains in the U.S. currency diminish the appeal of dollar-priced commodities used to hedge against inflation.

‘Weak Sentiment’

“We’re seeing the dollar stronger again and weak demand is still dominating,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich in Vienna. “As long as the market ignores the supply side, we’ll have weak sentiment.”

The U.K. government said yesterday it will spend an extra 100 billion pounds ($142 billion) to support the nation’s banks, a second lifeline in three months. The need for the latest package spurred concern that global financial crisis is worsening.

“For the next six months we’ll see awful economic data coming out, banks possibly having to be nationalized and excess inventories in the U.S.,” said Jonathan Kornafel, a director for Asia at options traders Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore. “There is really nothing that can pull this market higher.”

Brent crude oil for March settlement fell as much as $1.54, 3.5 percent, to $42.96 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. It traded for $44.04 at 1:32 p.m. London time.

Russia Dispute

Russia and Ukraine signed 10-year natural-gas contracts, ending a dispute that squeezed supplies to the European Union for almost two weeks. Shipments resumed today.

Rising U.S. stockpiles and forecasts from the International Energy Agency and OPEC on declining world demand contributed to an 11 percent decline in Nymex crude last week. Prices are down 20 percent this year, after tumbling 54 percent in 2008.

Crude-oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, where West Texas Intermediate traded on the Nymex is stored, climbed 2.5 percent to 33 million barrels last week, the Energy Department said this week. It was the highest since at least April 2004, when the department began keeping records for the location.

-- Editors: Will Kennedy, John Buckley.

To contact the reporters on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: January 20, 2009 08:35 EST
original story here;
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...efer=worldwide

[Northern Boy]

I read somewhere that they are now 12 super tankers anchored off shore with over 80 million barrels of oil in them . Here in Ontario canada gas was down near 66 cents a liter at xmas and as soon as the New year hit they jacked it up to 80 cents Oil has continued to fall but the price of gas is now stagnate around 80 cents . i did hear that as of midnight it was supposed to drop 3.8 cents so we should now in the morning

It just amazes me.....oil is down yet our pump prices are up again. When barrel price goes up we see the rise reflected at the pump immediatly.....

when the price of a barrel goes down it takes weeks to drop at the gas station.

Feels like a scam to me.

[giovonni]

Originally Posted by Kathleen

It just amazes me.....oil is down yet our pump prices are up again. When barrel price goes up we see the rise at the pump immediatly.....

when the price of a barrel goes down it takes weeks to reflect at the gas station.

Feels like a scam to me.

Yeah I agree> I got a bad feeling about all this?

[Swanny]

They keep saying the falling price is due to lack of demand, but the roads look as busy as ever to me.

Kathleen funny how it always works in their favour

It definitely stinks!

The price of oil has dropped again, but fuel has gone UP again here by 3p/litre in the last 7 days!

[Swanny]

Originally Posted by Colin

It definitely stinks!

The price of oil has dropped again, but fuel has gone UP again here by 3p/litre in the last 7 days!

Yea so how can they justify that???

[waitinginthewings]

Originally Posted by Kathleen

It just amazes me.....oil is down yet our pump prices are up again. When barrel price goes up we see the rise reflected at the pump immediatly.....

when the price of a barrel goes down it takes weeks to drop at the gas station.

Feels like a scam to me.

They are very blatant at ripping us off.

[waitinginthewings]

Prices where I am were at 74.9cents/litre before and after christmas, then they jumped it back up 5cents overnight.....currently it is 89.9cents/litre. I heard a few days ago that the price was at 77.9cents/litre in Edmonton . Why is there such variances from Province to Province and even city to city.

I get really ****** off at being ripped off....oh I want to get off the grid so bad.
My heating bill for December was $214....yikes, and now the hydro people have announced another hike in their rates.....

[DoctorWho]

Here in my area, when oil was around $55 a barrel at Thanksgiving, gas was $1.49 a gal. Now with oil around $45 a barrel (and lower), gas at the cheapest is $1.84-1.85 a gal. This difference is probably due to two reasons: 1) the oil companies are keeping gas prices 40-50¢ higher to compensate for losses they are getting with the low crude oil prices, 2) the recent stock market volatility, lowered confidence in the US $, and the bailouts have devalued the dollar, making gas prices higher than in November because of inflation.
Bill "the Doctor"

[Northern Boy]

I read some where that they now have 12 super tankers off shore acting as reservoirs because all U.S. storage facilities are at maximum . They are buying this oil at cheaper prices and when oil starts to jump they will then start to process it at the higher price and pass it on to us . As far as the price of gas what i have read on this is the oil companies are now deciding that they want gas at between .75 cents to a dollar per liter and they are the ones keeping the price from falling regardless of the barrel price .

[Northern Boy]

Originally Posted by waitinginthewings

Prices where I am were at 74.9cents/litre before and after christmas, then they jumped it back up 5cents overnight.....currently it is 89.9cents/litre. I heard a few days ago that the price was at 77.9cents/litre in Edmonton . Why is there such variances from Province to Province and even city to city.

I get really ****** off at being ripped off....oh I want to get off the grid so bad.
My heating bill for December was $214....yikes, and now the hydro people have announced another hike in their rates.....

yes those that reduce consumption of natural gas and hydro will find that they will pay more as the utilities now have to charge more because of lower household consumption and with industry slowdowns they can`t generate the revenue so they come after the little guy and recoup their loses

[Northern Boy]

as of noon today oil is over 45 dollars a barrel watch the price jump for gas

[DoctorWho]

Actually, it went down around where I live.
Bill "the Doctor"