Oil prices bounce back to over US$60 a barrel

22-Nov-06

Light sweet crude for January delivery rose US$1.37 to settle at US$60.17 a barrel Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices bounced back above US$60 a barrel on Tuesday as trouble erupted with an Alaskan pipeline, refinery outages in USA coupled with buying activity ahead of the weekly U.S. oil inventory report on anticipation that U.S. supply of gasoline and distillates dropped last week. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is flowing at 25% of its normal 800,000 bpd capacity, as strong winds disrupted tanker loading. Exxon Mobil Corp.'s refinery in Baytown, Texas, the country's biggest at 562,500 bpd and Citgo's 156,000 bpd refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas have also been shutdown. New York Mercantile Exchange will be closed on Thursday and Friday for the Thanks giving holiday.