Crude rises for second day

21 April 2010

Written by Bob Burton

Crude oil prices were climbing on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (April 21st) as skies reopened across much of Europe.

By the time European markets opened, the headline crude futures contract was trading at $84.28 (€54.80) a barrel, up 46 cents on yesterday's settle price.

While the resumption of flights will support demand for jet fuels, crude was also bolstered yesterday by a surprise decline in US crude inventories, as recorded by the American Petroleum Institute (API).

Reuters polls showed that the industry expected gasoline stocks to have risen by 400,000 barrels last week, but the API data in fact showed a 1.7 million-barrel decline.

Meanwhile, distillates stocks including heating oil declined 3.1 million barrels, against expectations of an 800,000-barrel increase.

Traders will now await the corroboration of the API figures from the Energy Information Administration, which will publish a separate, more comprehensive demand report later today.

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