Heating oil demand weighs on prices

27 July 2010

Written by Neil Brunskill

Heating oil prices were under pressure yesterday (July 26th) as traders anticipated weak demand for distillates and gasoline products in the US.

Ahead of the latest Energy Information Administration report, analysts questioned in separate polls conducted by Bloomberg and Reuters showed widespread expectations that distillate and gasoline stocks increased last week due to subdued demand.

This put pressure on energy commodities late in the day yesterday, and crude was continuing to fall this morning after closing unchanged for the day at $78.98 a barrel yesterday.

Earlier, crude and heating oil had rallied after the shock announcement from the US Commerce Department showing a 24 per cent rise in home sales from May to June.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Serene Lim, a commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group, said: "We're still seeing builds in the gasoline inventories which suggest that demand is increasing year-on-year but not as much as expected. So the positive news counterbalanced by the negative has given us a really range-bound market."