Oil prices continue to bubble up

Crude oil prices were up Tuesday. Nymex WTI May contracts rose $1.23 to $51.60 per barrel; June deliveries went up $1.58 ,t o $53.06. June delivery Brent crude was up $1.52, to $52.30.

One factor in the price rise was worry around the news that ExxonMobil and Valero refineries in the U.S. had been closed recently for unplanned maintenance and that Conoco Philips will close it’s Humber refinery next month.

Also a factor was anticipation of Wednesday’s weekly U.S. reports that are expected to show that another 1.8 million barrels of crude oil are in inventory, that gasoline inventories are up by 200,000 barrels, and that the stockpile of distillates such as heating oil and diesel fuel are up by 400,000 barrels.

Supplies stand to increase even more in future as OPEC president Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad said that OPEC will increase supplies by about 500,000 barrels per day in May, bringing output near a 25-year high.

Story link: Oil prices continue to bubble up