Energies Close
Energy futures closed a notch higher today, with Crude just barely holding onto positive territory and Natural Gas leading the field but still unable to break free of recent ranges.
Crude ended the day up 0.1% at $140.34, having earlier peaked at an all-time record of $143.67 on news of an attempted al Qaida attack on a Yemen oil refinery, as well as further attacks on a Shell facility in Nigeria. Later in the day Saudi Arabia’s oil minister blamed speculation, not supply, for recent price spikes, while a senior Saudi engineer raised doubts about supply levels in the long term.
Unleaded crept up 0.01% to 350.15, Heating Oil rose 0.6% to 393.00 and Natural Gas added 1.4% to 13.387. Natural Gas has been stuck in a holding pattern for the last 2 weeks, unable to trade above the 13.455 mark reached on June 19.