Print

Mail

wiki links

OIL: Oil briefly charts new territory as gold hits record

Children play in front of an electronic billboard listing the retail prices of fuel at a gas station in Manila yesterday. Fuel prices have gone up again in the Philippines in the face of high international oil prices. PHOTO: AFP

Oil prices briefly charted fresh record territory on Friday, rising to US$103.05 as the US dollar fell to all-time lows, before profit-taking trimmed the gains, traders said.

At the same time gold led other commodities higher, hitting a record US$976.32 per ounce as the troubled, cheaper US dollar encouraged buyers.

"This was part of a broad-based commodities run based on the continued weakness of the dollar," Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob said.

A weak US currency boosts demand for dollar-denominated raw materials such as crude oil because it makes them cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies. The increased demand, if it outstrips the fall in the currency, leads to higher prices.

After striking a record high of US$103.05, New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, closed down US$0.75 at US$101.84 per barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for April delivery settled US$0.80 lower at US$100.10. The contract struck a record peak of US$101.27 on Thursday.

"This was part of a broad-based commodities run based on the continued weakness of the dollar."

Olivier Jakob, Petromatrix analyst

"There is good support to oil futures with the weak dollar, geopolitical tensions, fund interest and OPEC's [stance on] ... supplies," Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov said.

"Nevertheless, persistent economic fears and more risk aversion could trigger a correction ... as investors still fear that slower growth in the US could weigh on global growth estimates and dent demand for energy," he added.

OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of the world's oil, was unlikely to change its production level at a meeting next week should crude prices remain around US$100, acting Libyan oil minister Chukri Ghanem told reporters on Friday.

Ghanem said of Wednesday's planned OPEC meeting: "I think we won't do anything."

Ghanem, who is the head of the Libyan national oil company and is acting oil minister, also told reporters that he expected the price to remain at about US$100.

OPEC, comprising 13 countries including Libya, is due to meet on Wednesday in Vienna, Austria, to reconsider its production ceiling of 29.67 million barrels per day, excluding output by Iraq.
This story has been viewed 774 times.