Page added on October 31, 2007
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil rose to a record $95.80 a barrel in New York after a U.S. inventories unexpectedly fell to a two-year low.
U.S. crude stockpiles dropped 3.89 million barrels to 312.7 million barrels last week, the lowest since October 2005, according to the Department of Energy. A 400,000-barrel gain was expected in a Bloomberg News survey. Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, resumed some oil exports and revealed that a storm caused more output to be halted than had been assumed.
“The shock of the data is understandable when you consider the news from Pemex that they shut in something like 1 million barrels a day, not 600,000,” said Chris Mennis, owner of oil broker New Wave Energy LLC in Aptos, California. “Most of that would have been going to the U.S.”
Crude oil for December delivery gained as much as $1.27, or 1.3 percent, to $95.80 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since trading began in 1983. It traded at $95.34 at 8:19 a.m. Singapore time.
Yesterday the contract surged $4.15, or 4.6 percent, to settle at $94.53 barrel. Oil is up 62 percent from a year ago.
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