Bourse

Home page

Bourse

Oil prices slip on world markets

17 February 2009 10:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Crude oil fell below $37 a barrel in New York on speculation a deepening recession in Europe and Asia will stifle demand for fuels, Bloomberg reports.
Crude oil for March delivery traded at $36.65 a barrel, down 86 cents from the Feb. 13 close, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 8:29 a.m. in London. Floor trading was closed for the Presidentsâ€™ Day holiday in the U.S. and yesterdayâ€™s transactions will be booked today for settlement.
The March Nymex oil contract expires on Feb. 20. The more actively traded April contract was at $41.25 today, down 72 cents from last weekâ€™s close.
The price of oil for delivery in April is more than $4 a barrel higher than for March, the so-called prompt month contract, after reaching as much as $8.19 a barrel on Feb. 12. This structure, in which the future monthâ€™s price is higher than the one before it, is known as contango, allowing buyers to profit from hoarding oil.
Brent crude for April settlement rose as much as 72 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $44 a barrel on Londonâ€™s ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was at $43.50 a barrel at 8:30 a.m. London time.