Heating oil slips further, following crude

27 January 2010

Written by Kim Bardsley

Heating oil prices moved lower during the electronic trading session of the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning (January 26th), with the sell-off driven largely by trade in the eastern hemisphere.

As European markets opened, the headline heating oil contract was trading around $1.946 (€1.38) a gallon, down more than 0.4 cents on yesterday's settle price.

The slump came despite a surprise decline in US crude inventories, as revealed by the American Petroleum Institute. While a Reuters polled showed expectations of a 1.4 million-barrel build, the organisation witnessed a 1.5 million-barrel build last week.

Traders will now look to the US Energy Information Administration as it publishes its weekly demand figures later today for corresponding signs of a nascent recovery in demand.

Despite the severe winter weather conditions witnessed across much of North America and Europe, demand for heating oil and other fuels has remained anaemic this season, causing refineries to reduce production to a 25-year low.

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