Oil Prices - WTI
The September contract for West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) ended the week at US$78.98 a barrel, up US$2.97 on last week’s close. The oil price moved higher as US stock markets rallied on better economic news from Europe and better company news from the US.
Oil Prices - Tapis
Tapis, an Asian marker crude for Australasian producers, closed the week at US$80.65 down 64 cents on the week. For Australian producers that represented an oil price of A$90.62 a barrel at US$0.89 cents to the A$.
US Natural Gas Price
The price of the front month natural gas contract (the Henry Hub benchmark) in the United States ended Friday at US$4.58 an mcf up 9 cents on last week’s close.
The Henry Hub spot price finished higher at US$4.70 an mcf.
Market Outlook
The Dow Jones was up Friday and up for the week but flat on the year. Oil prices edged higher over the week as tropical storm Bonny disrupted production of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. But fell marginally on Friday.
The US reporting season got off to a reasonably good start. That was curious as leading US indicators suggested the US economy was slowing appreciably. To the extent that the US Administration is talking about a possible second stimulus package. And the US Federal Reserve is thought to be ready for another “quantitative easing”.
Our market should start stronger on Monday. But with the current uncertainty about the state of world economies, the reporting week ahead and the ongoing campaign for the August 21 election, we can expect a few choppy sessions.
Next week is a busy week for news. Companies have to release their June quarter activity and cash flow statements by 31 July.
It’s a week we both welcome and dread! Hundreds of pages of reports to wade through. But each quarter’s data adds something new to our assessment of the junior oilers. Finds some out, adds to our confidence in others.
As a result of the imminent release of new data we have decided to hold off our further detailed review of Aussie juniors operating in the US that we began last week until all the June quarter reports are to hand.
Petsec Energy issued its quarterly numbers last week so we focus on those in that section this week.