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News Release 560
U.S. CRUDE PRICES AT 3-MONTH HIGH WHILE NATURAL GAS PRICES CONTINUE LOWER
Volume 34-560 |
Contact: Larry Archer |
(For immediate release) |
573-751-3807 |
JEFFERSON CITY, MO, DEC. 22, 2006 -- Milder temperatures through the end of December and strong domestic supplies likely influenced lower natural gas prices that settled at $6.77 per MMBtu on Dec. 20, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Energy Center's bi-weekly Energy Bulletin. While the price of natural gas is $0.78 higher since the beginning of the heating season -- October 2006 -- it is still well below last year's price of $14.27 per MMBtu, a difference of 53 percent.
U.S. crude oil prices settled higher this week at $63.72 per barrel on Dec. 20, a 3-month high, following the U.S. Department of Energy's weekly storage report that showed supplies of crude oil falling over 6 million barrels. For the year, front-month crude will average settling at over $66 per barrel, nearly $10 higher than 2005 and $40 over 2002 prices. Over the last four years, average crude oil prices have tripled in value and refined product prices have jumped more than 170%. The record crude oil settlement price of $77.03 was set on July 14.
November crude exports by OPEC fell 0.6 million barrels per day following the cartel's call for a production cut of 1.2 million barrels per day on Oct. 18. OPEC agreed to another 0.5 million barrels per day cut in production on Dec. 14, effective February 1, 2007 -- a combined reduction of nearly six percent of OPEC's October 28.8 million barrels per day output.
Missouri's average retail diesel fuel price increased $0.06 per gallon since Nov. 20 to $2.48 per gallon on Dec. 18. The retail average is nearly $0.10 cents higher than a year ago but is $0.12 lower than the U.S. average of $2.61 per gallon.
On Dec. 18, Missouri's average retail price for regular gasoline was $2.14 per gallon, about $0.11 higher from last month and $0.01 or 1 percent higher than last year's average retail price of $2.13. However, the price remains below the U.S. average price of $2.32 and the Midwest average retail price of $2.27 per gallon.
National demand for motor gasoline increased last week to an average of 9.5 million barrels per day, increasing by 100,000 barrels per day compared to the previous week and the highest since October. Gasoline demand is unusually robust for this time of year.
On Dec. 15, US gasoline supplies were 3.2 million barrels lower compared to the same period in 2005.
The complete Energy Bulletin for Dec. 21 is available online at www.dnr.mo.gov/energy/transportation/EB122106.pdf. The department's bimonthly energy bulletins are available online at www.dnr.mo.gov/energy/transportation/fb.htm.
For news releases on the Web, visit www.dnr.mo.gov/newsrel. For a complete listing of the department's upcoming meetings, hearings and events, visit the department's online calendar at www.dnr.mo.gov/calendar/search.do.
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