October 24, 2004
By Yeoh En-Lai, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo Finance
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Crude oil prices stayed within range of their all-time high Monday amid concerns among traders over supply ahead of the coming winter and data showing that China's big demand for petroleum is likely to increase.
The price of crude futures for December stood at $55.18 early Monday in Asian after-hours electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up a cent from its record close Friday when the U.S. Energy Department reported a fifth straight fall in heating oil stocks.
November heating oil hit new record high of $1.6030 per gallon Friday. It was $1.5951 early Monday.
Analysts and traders said they also were on the lookout for increasing demand from China, which on Friday released its third-quarter economic growth figures showing gross domestic product climbing a blazing 9.1 percent on the year and 9.5 percent for the first 3 quarters of 2004.
China is the world's second-largest consumer of crude after the United States and consumes upward of 6 million barrels per day, the Paris-based International Energy Agency said in its latest report. There are no signs that demand from Beijing will decrease in 2005, the agency said.
While crude futures prices are more than 80 percent higher than a year ago, they still need to reach $80 per barrel in order to surpass the all-time peak -- in inflation-adjusted terms -- set in February 1981.
Crude has risen more than $10 in the past month alone, primarily on concerns over production in the Gulf of Mexico where over 23 million barrels remain shut in since Hurricane Ivan hit mid-September.
Fears of a cold Northern Hemisphere winter have further stoked the price of crude and heating oil, with dwindling stocks also being reported in Western Europe and Japan.
Demand for jet fuel -- kerosene and additives -- also typically rises during the Christmas season because of extra flights, adding even more pressure.
Winter woes are taking place against the backdrop of disruptions in production and turmoil in key producers Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria and Russia which continue to roil markets.
Elsewhere, Iraqi officials said there have been 250 guerrilla attacks on pipelines and other oil infrastructure, squandering between $7 billion and $12 billion in potential export revenue.
"What Iraq needed to do was rehabilitate the industry, but the focus has been on repairing the damage from sabotage," said Walid Khadduri, an Iraqi who edits Middle East Economic Survey, an oil journal based in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Iraq's Oil Minister Thamer Al-Ghadhban estimated emergency repairs and lost revenue had cost the country $7 billion since exports resumed after the invasion.
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