Today focus will be on the US inventory data, with gasoline stocks expected to have fallen by 1.9 million barrels in the week to August 5 as refineries struggle to avoid breakdowns and meet demand,
Referring the issue to the UN Security Council moves Iran a step closer to possible sanctions, which despite Iran's claims otherwise could lead to Iran halting its oil exports.
Today the market will be focused on the US government inventory data to obtain a clearer picture of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina to domestic crude and product stockpiles.
We're not expecting a cut out of OPEC because of the high prices. OPEC would be sending the wrong signal to the market.
traders switched focus from a fall in crude inventories to a general surplus of oil and signs of falling demand.
With a massive shortfall in gasoline a strong possibility in the next few months and the hurricane season still active, we at least expect product prices to be supported for the time being even though oil and gas facilities are starting up again.
At the start of the winter, they talked about a colder than expected winter. Now they're talking about a warmer than expected one. We're not out of the woods with the weather yet.
Crude stocks are expected to have fallen by 600,000 barrels over the week while distillate stocks are expected to be up by 1.7 million barrels.
There's some nervousness about the hurricane, that it might slow imports, and concern that gasoline and heating oil stocks might fall more than expected.
Despite the relative high stocks of crude and oil products in the US, the market remains supported by the concerns about Iran reducing exports, either voluntarily or because of any sanctions imposed.
This disaster has come at possibly the worst time with US refineries already working flat-out to produce products to meet high demand, putting more pressure on the rest of the refineries and increasing their chance of breakdown.
It's going to be interesting to see what demand is. If it continues to fall that's going to prevent prices going higher.
Sugar is going ballistic because of the oil price. As oil prices go higher and higher, the only real alternative at present to gasoline is ethanol.
Sugar is going ballistic because of the oil price.
Governments are saying that 5 percent of gasoline must be replaced by ethanol, which is a huge amount. Where is it going to come from?
The major concern is that there is no spare capacity to make up for any drop in oil supply from Iran, a fact that the country's leaders know and which enables them to be bolder than usual.
The market has gone too high. We still have high distillate and crude stock levels. Only cold weather can push prices higher. This isn't severe enough to push them beyond $60.
