Hurricane fears for US oil supplies
by Brian Turner
The coming of hurricane season, which began June 1, with a prediction of another active year of storms has raised fears of widespread disruption of oil and gas supplies due to weather conditions.
OPEC, however, tried to downplay fears of short supplies in a meeting with European Union officials in Brussels ahead of a meeting on June 15 in Vienna to set output policy for the second half of the year.
But despite predictions from OPEC that production will stay at its present 25-year highs or even increase, Barclays Capital has predicted that crude oil prices will rise to $60 or more per barrel in upcoming months.
All of this combined to send crude oil prices up on Thursday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate July contracts were trading at $53.25 per barrel, up 71 cents, while IPE Brent for July delivery was up 70 cents to $52.75 per barrel.
In other commodities, gold was little changed from its overnight close to trade at $422.30/$423.05 per troy ounce at mid-afternoon in New York. Still, analysts believe that the current price rally is not over. On the London Metal Exchange, copper was up $2.5 to $3,240.5 per tonne.
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