NEWS / Foreign Exchange

Crude Market Update

• Natural Gas Inventories: 66 bcf vs. 56 bcf exp. [yesterday]
• British Airways CEO: High oil prices are a major challenge for the sector
• China's energy-intensive industries are still growing too fast, according to an official with the state-planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission. He added that it remains difficult to resolve regional and seasonal power shortages. [Forbes]
• Singapore: China's oil giants Sinopec and PetroChina moved yesterday to more than double diesel imports this month after Beijing unexpectedly raised domestic fuel prices by up to 10 per cent, giving profit margins a fillip. The main suppliers to the world's second-largest energy user are seeking to buy an extra 120,000 tonnes of the fuel in November, trade sources based in China and Singapore told Reuters, adding to the 90,000 tonnes they have already purchased and potentially lifting imports to their highest in three years. [Gulf News]
• What's ailing Big Oil? This round of lower profits was caused by low refining margins, or the difference between the price of crude oil and that of refined products like gasoline. Because gasoline prices haven't been rising in tandem with soaring crude, integrated oil companies and refiners are suffering a major blow in refining and marketing profits. Some analysts say refining problems are here to stay.  "Gasoline prices can't keep pace with the sharp runup in crude oil prices," says Fadel Gheit, senior energy analyst for Oppenheimer & Co.. "Going forward, whatever an oil company can get for crude oil [production], it will forfeit at the pump." [Business Week]
• Even as oil prices continue their climb, profits for Western oil companies appear to have peaked for the moment -- as underscored by a surprisingly weak earnings report from Exxon Mobile Corp. The reasons include aggressive governments that are grabbing a bigger slice of the oil pie, as well market dynamics that are somewhat sheltering consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere from the full effect of oil's rise. [WSJ]
• NCH: Tropical Storm Noel moving north-northeast and is growing in size || Location: latitude 28.4 North longitude 75.2 West [470 miles South of Cape Hatteras] || Maximum winds of 80mph and a minimum central pressure of 981mb
• Accuweather: Hurricane Noel will graze the East Coast with gusty winds and rough seas as it transforms into a powerful non-tropical system and heads toward Atlantic Canada. Across the United States, eastern New England will bear the brunt of the storm Saturday with potentially damaging winds, possible coastal flooding and heavy rain.