Oil Prices Dip as OPEC Holds Outputs Steady

At 9:49 am EDT, the price of crude had lost 0.2 percent to fall to $71.20 a barrel and the price of heating oil had fallen by 0.9 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report

Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: UP $0.02
Morning projection (for Friday’s price per gallon): UP $0.03

Crude and heating oil prices rose in early trading this morning, but quickly retreated around 9:30 am EDT.  Gains had come from a new oil demand forecast from the International Energy Agency that predicted demand for crude would begin to recover at the end of this year and return to year-over-year growth by 2010.  Predictably, OPEC chose to keep output levels steady at their meeting in Vienna yesterday, and devoted most of the meeting to emphasizing compliance with current output quotas.  Additional support for oil prices came from API data on US petroleum inventories released yesterday afternoon.  The API report showed a big drawdown of US crude inventories—7.2 million barrels.  Energy Information Administration, to be released this morning, will support or refute the API report.

HEAT USA price experts reported a small gain in retail prices today following yesterday’s oil price gains on NYMEX.  They emphasized that EIA inventory data will determine the direction of prices tomorrow.