Taking cue from lower gasoline futures, oil prices dipped to settle near US$60 a barrel Friday. Light, sweet crude for April delivery settled at US$60.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery settled at US$61.13 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Exchange. Gasoline futures slipped more than 2 cents to settle at US$1.9021 a gallon.
Oil and gasoline prices have been boosted recently due to concerns over falling gasoline inventories as refinery production as well as imports have decreased. Gas supplies are 3.9% lower than year ago levels. On Wednesday, the government reported that U.S. motor gasoline inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels to 216.4 million barrels, a sharper decline than the 1.4 million barrel drop that analysts had expected. However, gasoline and oil prices are expected to rebound if supply problems persist.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members are scheduled to meet in Vienna, Austria. And OPEC's decision about the production at this meeting has real implications on prices both over the long term and short term.
Markets maintain their focus on developments in the Middle East over Iran's failure to comply with demands to halt its uranium enrichment program. Washington is pushing for tougher U.N. sanctions on Tehran and introducing legislation to punish foreign oil companies that invest in Iran's energy industry.
12-Mar-07 
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