On Wednesday, closing quotation of oil future price in New York was 78.68 dollars per barrel, growing greatly by 1.9% and recovering from the lowest level in four years. It was considered as being caused by an oil pipe exploration in Saudi Arabia.
A security officer of Saudi Arabia disclosed fire occurred on an oil pipe which was far 156 miles from the northern of Riyadh, the Capital of Saudi Arabia during maintenance. The fire behavior had already been controlled and no indication showed that terrorists attacked the oil pipe. Previously, unverified market rumors claimed that an oil pipe in Saudi Arabia exploded, resulting in oil price rising.
Before that, international oil price declined persistently in the first two trading days of this week. Because ofSaudi Arabiaannounced to reduce oil price exported to theU.S.Meanwhile, American trade figures also showed that import volume of oil fell. On Tuesday, oil price had ever hit the lowest level in three years. However, oil pipe exploration inSaudi Arabiawas quite sensitive. If the following investigation shows that the terrorists are involved in exploration, larger fluctuation may occur in international oil market.
IEA also released energy inventory report by October 31. The report showed that American oil inventory increased by 500 thousand barrels last week. The growth rate was lower than that expected by analysts. Platts showed that American oil inventory increased by 1.2 million barrels, which was estimated by analysts. The report also showed that American gasoline inventory decreased by 1.4 million barrels while analysts predicted to decrease by 200 thousand barrels. Distillate inventory (including diesel and heating oil) declined by 70 thousand barrels, while analysts estimated to reduce by 1.1 million barrels.
