Oil Prices Surge on OPEC Meeting and Inventory Draw

The price of crude rose 2 percent to close at $65.08 a barrel and the price of heating oil rose by 2.6 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report
Evening projection (for Friday’s average retail price per gallon): UP $0.05
Stable OPEC production levels and falling US inventories of petroleum products made for major gains in crude and heating oil prices today.  The US Energy Information Administration reported this morning that US crude inventories dropped by 5.4 million barrels, a far greater drop than the 700,000-barrel decline predicted by industry analysts.  OPEC leaders fell in line with expectations by keeping current production quotas intact and offered more optimistic comments about oil demand.

HEAT USA price experts were unpleasantly surprised by the steep gain in oil prices and made an upward revision to this morning’s prediction of Friday’s retail prices.