NEWS | Wednesday, 23 July 2008

Oil price drops

As oil dealers speculated on a lower Chinese demand growth once the Beijing Olympics are over, yesterday oil was traded at $127.35 a barrel until Nymex August West Texas Intermediate expires, after which the September contract will be traded at $128, $3.82 lower.
Although tropical storm Dolly threatened to affect offshore production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, which would have resulted in a rebound, this only proved to be a false alarm.
Chinese trade data provided a talking point for dealers, with crude imports in June rising by a modest 3.2 per cent while projections for gasoline imports in August were half the volume for July.