Prices have swung wildly, gaining as much as 9 percent in one session only to fall 5 percent the next, as traders wrestle over whether a price floor has really been hit, even as supplies look to continue outstripping demand in the first half of this year.
After posting a 60 percent crash from above $115 a barrel June to near $45 in January, Brent crude oil has rallied by as much as 30 percent, touching $59 a barrel this week. Volatility has also jumped in recent weeks. “I see contango in the market, I see the cost of funding going down, I see the dollar strengthening, I see strong refining margins.”Ĭontango - industry jargon for when prices for delivery months in the future are higher than in the spot market - is key to much of the trading boom.Īny trader with access to storage, on land or at sea, can buy a barrel of oil today for $58 and sell it 10 months down the line for $65, based on current prices. “I haven’t been more positive about trading conditions since 2009,” said Torbjorn Tornqvist, head of trading house Gunvor, one of the world’s largest independent oil dealers, told Reuters last month in Davos. The bumper profits on offer are reflected in the long list of IP Week parties, with no firms cancelling their events this year, even as they make cuts in other areas.
0 kommentar(er)
