Well, we’re starting to see the economies in growing countries start
to slow down, (specifically China) and for the first time in months,
the IEA has LOWERED its forecast of crude oil consumption by 50,000
barrels a day. While that might not seem like much (since the world
uses 84 million barrels a day) its all psychological. Its causing
significant drops in crude oil, especially since Saudi Arabia is now
saying they will pump 500,000 more barrels a day and will promise to
deliver the oil that they promised on contracts. The market is now
correcting.
A few more facts about crude and gas this week:
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve) rose by 3.6 million barrels from the
previous week. Over the last nine weeks, they have increased a total
of 26.4 million barrels. At 320.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil
inventories are just below the upper end of the average range for this
time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.8
million barrels last week, and remain above the average range.
Basically we saw a climb in gas inventories EVEN though refinery
utilization was down 2% over last week, which means demand is cooling
off.
PREDICTION: we’ll see gas prices down to the 2.00-2.10 range soon,
MAYBE even break a ONE on the boards at 1.99.
We’ll see
NO rise for this week.