Oil recovering after weak session

26/08/2009

Crude oil prices rose on the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (August 26th), partially offsetting heavy losses witnessed yesterday.

At 05:42 Eastern Time, the October delivery contract was trading at $72.27 (£44.33), up 22 cents on yesterday's settle price, which in turn was down more than $2 dollars on the previous day.

The moderate upward movement came ahead of the publication of the latest demand report from the Energy Information Administration which is expected to show reductions in stock levels for crude, heating oil and other petroleum products.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg predict that crude inventories fell by 1.15 million barrels last week.

Hannes Loacker, analyst at Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich in Vienna, explained: "Even if we see only a slight decrease in crude inventories, it will be enough to give prices some support. Even if we see only a slight decrease in crude inventories, it will be enough to give prices some support."