Archived Summaries
Monday 13 August 2012
Market Close
Crude oil resumed its recent upward momentum following a brief reversal on Friday. Brent moved to a three-month high of over $115 on renewed fears of supply disruption as Israel threatened action to prevent Iran from proceeding with its nuclear programme and the prospect of further disruption to North Sea supplies when the Buzzard field goes down for maintenance next month. The stronger momentum of Brent over West Texas has seen the differential between the NYMEX and European benchmarks increase to over $20 per barrel again. The UK gas market also recovered its upward momentum yesterday with prompt prices gaining particularly strongly, given a relatively well supplied system. Demand remained sluggish on the day and while deliveries lagged throughout the day, the deficit was never more than 4 MCM and supply sources remained steady. Within day and day ahead gas gained 0.90 and 0.95p while the week ahead was up by 1.55p ahead of maintenance upstream of the Kollsness processing facility. The front month recorded the least movement on the day, gaining just 0.10p but the front winter recorded the biggest movement on the futures market, gaining 0.58p.
