Oil Prices Jump to High for the Year
May 6th, 2009Related: Initial Oil Target
Via: AP:
Oil prices hit a new high for the year Wednesday after a government report showed that unused crude being placed in storage slowed a bit last week.
Benchmark crude for June delivery rose $1.95 to $55.79 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, levels not seen since November.
Demand for energy because of the recession has been decimated, leaving storage facilities more bloated than in any year since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Prices for crude, and gasoline, have plunged as a result, providing a break to everyone from industrial companies to consumers, though that must be taken in the context of shuttered factories and layoffs.
Crude levels for the week ended May 1 rose by 600,000 barrels to 375.3 million barrels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had expected a build up of 2.2 million barrels.
