Oil prices at US$72 a barrel

31-May-06

Prior to an OPEC meeting in Venezuela on Thursday and the start of the Atlantic hurricane season later this week, oil prices settled at US $72 a barrel. The Memorial Day holiday denotes the beginning of the peak driving season in the U.S., a period when any loss of oil production or refining capacity leads to wariness. This nervousness is obvious though domestic crude-oil inventories are abundant and gasoline demand in recent weeks has been flat compared with a year ago. Some of the top concerns for soaring prices are diplomatic tensions between the West and Iran over Tehran's nuclear goals, violence in Nigeria and rising energy demand in China. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wants OPEC to cut production, but other OPEC countries, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are calling for no change to the group's official 28 million bpd production quota.