03 October 2011 10:20 [Source: ICIS news]
SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Crude futures fell by more than $1/bbl on Monday, undermined by ongoing worries about eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis, and with recent data showing weakness in ?xml:namespace>
At 08:22 GMT, November Brent crude on
November NYMEX light sweet crude futures (WTI) were at $78.12/bbl, down by $1.08/bbl from the previous close. Earlier, the contract price fell to an intra-day low of $77.36/bbl, down by $1.84/bbl.
ICE Brent crude prices are trading at their lowest level since mid-February 2011, prior to the Libyan conflict, while WTI values are at levels last seen in late-September 2010.
Recent data from China showed the country's manufacturing sector contracted for the third consecutive month. HSBC’s purchasing managers index (PMI) for September was calculated at 49.9 for September, unchanged from August. HSBC said the soft figures indicated a cooling in industrial activity – a lag effect of China's credit tightening.
But
Meanwhile, the US dollar strengthened against the euro and other leading currencies on Monday, making crude less attractive to international buyers. Equity markets also weakened, with the Nikkei 225 Index in
The euro and equity markets declined on expectations that
Meanwhile, Shell confirmed on Sunday that it had declared force majeure on some customers in Asia following the unscheduled shutdown of its 500,000 bbl/day Bukom refinery in
Concerns over tight prompt supplies due to the shutdown have pushed the forward curve for gasoil swaps into steep backwardation for the front months, with October-November intermonth spread at around $1.25/bbl. Prior to the fire at Shell’s Bukom refinery, the same spread was just at around 30 cents/bbl.
Shell was also heard to have cancelled the lifting of some 4m barrels of Arab light crude from Saudi Arabia for loading in October due to the Bukom refinery outage. The outage is expected to have a negative impact on the physical crude market depending on the length of the