BrentNorthSeaOil.com

Oil prices slipped to near $71 a barrel Friday as the crude market took a breather from its recent daily gains. But the mood remained bullish as investors eyed signs that the global recession may be easing.

Benchmark crude for July delivery fell $1.60 to $71.08 a barrel by afternoon European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, it rose $1.35 to settle at $72.68, the highest since October.

Reflecting expectations of continued global economic weakness, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecast Friday that demand for its crude this year would average 28.6 million barrels a day – 2.2 million barrels less than in 2008.

Still there are some signs of a turnaround.
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The price of crude oil means the spot price of either WTI/Light Crude as traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) for delivery in Cushing, Oklahoma, or of Brent as traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE, into which the International Petroleum Exchange has been incorporated) for delivery at Sullom Voe. The price of a barrel of oil is highly dependent on both its grade, determined by factors such as its specific gravity or API and its sulphur content, and its location. The vast majority of oil is not traded on an exchange but on an over-the-counter basis, typically with reference to a marker crude oil grade that is typically quoted via pricing agencies such as Argus Media Ltd and Platts. Other important benchmarks include Dubai, Tapis, and the OPEC basket. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) uses the Imported Refiner Acquisition Cost, the weighted average cost of all oil imported into the US, as its “world oil price”. Read more »