Oil Tops $104 for First Time
Oil prices soared $5 to close at more than $104 a barrel for the first time Wednesday following OPEC’s decision to keep output levels steady, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures closed at $104.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said. Futures touched $104.95, a record intraday high.
OPEC ministers met Wednesday in Vienna, Austria, and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said supply and demand were stable, Bloomberg reported.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told Bloomberg Television that tight oil supplies, not price speculators, were driving the price to record levels.
DOE released its weekly inventory report Wednesday that showed oil inventories fell 3.1 million barrels last week, below analysts’ expectations, Bloomberg said.
Gasoline inventories rose 1.7 million barrels, while distillates, which include diesel fuel, fell 2.3 million barrels.
Oil had fallen $2.93 Tuesday to close at $99.52 — the first closing price below $100 since last Wednesday and the biggest single-day decline since Feb. 1.
