Crude oil prices on the rise

Nevada Daily Mail

The good news: natural gas prices are staying steady, and the winter increase in prices is much lower than last year's increase. Local consumers are not seeing spikes in natural gas common in winter. Experts are attributing this to lower demand due to the unusually mild temperatures that have prevailed so far in Vernon County and throughout Missouri.

The bad news: crude oil prices are at a 3-month high, so don't expect a break in prices at the gas pump for now.

According to a report from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, natural gas prices settled at $6.77 per MMBtu on Dec. 20. While the price of natural gas is 78 cents higher since the beginning of the heating season in October, it is still well below last year's price of $14.27 per MMBtu, a difference of 53 percent.

U.S. crude oil prices settled higher this week at $63.72 per barrel on Dec. 20, a 3-month high, following the U.S. Department of Energy's weekly storage report that showed supplies of crude oil falling by more than 6 million barrels. For the year, front-month crude will average settling at more than $66 per barrel, nearly $10 higher than 2005 and $40 higher than 2002 prices. Over the last four years, average crude oil prices have tripled in price and refined product prices have jumped more than 170 percent, according to the report. The record crude oil price of $77.03 was set on July 14.

November crude exports by OPEC fell 0.6 million barrels per day following the cartel's call for a production cut of 1.2 million barrels per day on Oct. 18. OPEC agreed to another 0.5 million barrels per day cut in production on Dec. 14, effective Feb.1, 2007 -- a combined reduction of nearly six percent of OPEC's October 28.8 million barrels per day.

Missouri's average retail diesel fuel price increased 6 cents per gallon since Nov. 20 to $2.48 per gallon on Dec. 18. The retail average is nearly10 cents higher than a year ago but is 12 lower than the U.S. average of $2.61 per gallon.

On Dec. 18, Missouri's average retail price for regular gasoline was $2.14 per gallon, about 11 cents higher from last month and 1 cent or 1 percent higher than last year's average retail price of $2.13. Consumers in Nevada saw similar prices. However, the price remains below the U.S. average price of $2.32 and the Midwest average retail price of $2.27 per gallon.

National demand for motor gasoline increased last week to an average of 9.5 million barrels per day, increasing by 100,000 barrels per day compared to the previous week and the highest since October.

Gasoline demand is unusually robust for this time of year, the report noted.