Oil Prices Up on Weak Dollar and New Demand Forecast; Crude Closes Above $70

The price of crude gained 2.7 percent to close at $70.01 a barrel and the price of heating oil closed 2 percent higher.

HEAT USA Price Report
Evening projection (for Wednesday’s average retail heating oil price per gallon): UP $0.04

The US dollar stayed weak throughout the trading day today, giving a boost to oil prices.  The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) also provided support to oil prices by revising its 2009 world oil demand forecast upward by 10,000 per day, the first upward revision since September of last year.  The administration also upped its forecast for 2009 oil demand in the US.  The EIA will release US inventory data for petroleum products tomorrow, which are expected to show falling stockpiles.  If so, prices will most likely continue to climb tomorrow.

HEAT USA price experts reported that they expected oil prices to continue moving upward through the rest of the week.