Oil Prices Flat After Wednesday’s Surge

At 9:55 am EDT, the price of crude had risen by just 0.2 percent to $72.55 a barrel and the price of heating oil had fallen by 0.6 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report

Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: UP $0.06
Morning projection (for Friday’s average price per gallon): DOWN $0.01

Surprisingly large reductions in crude, gasoline and distillate fuel inventories in the US reported yesterday by the EIA sparked a huge rally in oil prices yesterday.  The price of crude jumped up by 4 percent and the price of heating oil had posted a similar gain when the market closed on Wednesday.  This morning, however, saw crude and heating oil prices decline slightly as yesterday’s inventory drops were attributed to a decline in imports rather than a real increase in domestic oil demand.  Hurricane Bill, still hovering off the US Atlantic coast, was recently downgraded to a category 3 storm, further reducing price support for oil as the storm’s threat to production and refining infrastructure weakened.

HEAT USA price experts saw yesterday morning’s prediction of slightly lower retail heating oil prices today stamped out by surging oil prices on NYMEX yesterday afternoon.  Today’s heating oil prices are much higher than Wednesday’s, but price experts expect some leveling-off in prices tomorrow.