Oil Prices Sink as Big Inventories Weigh Heavy Again

At 8:55 am EDT, the price of crude had fallen by 0.4 percent to $71.63 a barrel and the price of heating oil had lost 0.6 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report

Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: DOWN $0.01
Morning projection (for Monday’s price per gallon): DOWN $0.02

Oil prices dipped this morning after three straight days of gains as swollen inventories around the world once again led investors to question whether the current supply and demand picture justifies recent prices.  The IEA’s announcement of expectations for steadily increasing global demand over the next 15 months continued to support prices, as did a weak US dollar, but neither factors could overcome the influence of the current high supply, low demand environment.  Today’s lower prices mark the latest turn in a cycle of rising and falling prices that are alternately lifted in the short term by positive economic news and driven down by a bleak long-term supply and demand outlook.

HEAT USA price experts reported that yesterday’s relatively flat trading of crude and heating oil led to a small decrease in today’s retail heating oil prices, and predicted another small decrease for Monday.