Oil priced dropped at the end of the week after President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak gave in to the demands of the protesters and resigned, calming fears that the revolt would disrupt oil shipments through Egypt’s Suez Canal.
This week’s inventories data from the US Department of Energy showed a massive gain of 4.7 million barrels in crude stockpiles in the US.
The report upped pressure on the prices as it followed another monetary policy tightening move by China, which decided to hike its key interest rates by 25 basis points in the latest attempt to curb inflation and prevent the economy from overheating.
Oil futures were supported by this week’s US employment and consumer confidence data.
Thursday’s jobless claims report from the Labor Department revealed that initial applications for unemployment benefits dropped 36,000 to 383,000 last week, hitting the lowest level in over two years.
Yesterday’s update on the University of Michigan consumer confidence index surged from 74.2 in January to 75.1 in February.
US light, sweet crude for March delivery, currently the most active contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), dropped to US$85.49/barrel, while April crude retreated to US$89.13/barrel.
March Brent Crude last traded at US$101.55/barrel on the ICE Exchange.
Oil and gas stocks were headed in different directions this week.
BP (LON:BP) held steady at 475 pence. Fellow supermajor Shell (LON:RDSB) declined from 2,145 pence to 2,124 pence, while Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) fell from 426 pence to 419 pence.
BG Group (LON:BG) surged from 1,429 pence to 1,524 pence and Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) advanced from 1,400 pence to 1,452 pence.
Engineering firms wer ein decline as Amec (LON:AMEC) retreated from 1,209 pence to 1,197 pence, while Petrofac (LON:PFC) slipped from 1,550 pence to 1,537 pence.