US fuel stock falls while oil price continues to escalate
17 Apr '08
1 min read
Oil prices hit new records with US $115 a barrel today as dollar dropped even further accompanied by a big fall in US gasoline stockpiles.
US crude for May delivery plunged one cent to $114.92 a barrel after hitting $115.21 in early electronic trade.
On Wednesday, oil prices touched $1.14 while London Brent crude rose 4 cents to $112.70 a barrel.
Experts believe that the major reasons behind rising prices are fall in US stocks and weakening dollar. However, what is surprising is that although US economy is slowing down, demand for the commodity is not growing.
Crude oil stocks fell 2.3 million barrels to 313.7 million barrels inspite of lower US processing rates that declined 1.6 percentage points to 81.4 percent of the capacity.
On the contrary, demand from China has been reflecting a strong surge with top refiners continuing to absorb high diesel imports for a sixth straight month.
PetroChina, the second largest refiner, has bought 300,000 tons of gas oil for May after Beijing allowed an import tax break into the second quarter. Growth in refining run rates in China remained strong in March at 6.8 percent.