Oil Rises to Record $81.18 on Expected Supply Drop, Rate Cut

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg News

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose above $81 a barrel for the first time in New York on speculation rising global demand may hamper efforts to store fuel for the fourth quarter.

A U.S. Energy Department report tomorrow will probably show oil stockpiles in the world's biggest consumer fell for the 10th time in 11 weeks, according to a survey of analysts. The U.S. Federal Reserve will cut lending rates later today to help prevent the nation's housing slump from slowing the economy, interest rate futures show.

``The market just thinks that there is not a whole lot of crude to go around and they're not willing to give up crude at cheap prices,'' said Tom Hartmann, commodity broker at Altavest Worldwide Trading Inc. in Mission Viejo, California. ``From a technical standpoint, this market probably has the legs to get up to $83-$84.''

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U.S. oil stockpiles probably fell 2 million barrels last week, based on the median estimate from a Bloomberg News survey of 12 analysts. Inventories held 322.6 million barrels on Sept. 7, 2.7 percent less than a year earlier, and 8.3 percent more than the five-year average for the period, the Energy Department said Sept. 12.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7mPsTpXGUW8&refer=worldwide

[TheFarseer]

1. great

so why are my f*cking oil stocks down?

[lapfog_1]

2. Let's see... housing bubble, credit crunch, the race to the bottom

may be nearly over... to the point that no one can afford even the cheap goods.

Oh yeah, huge deficits due to something... well, it's not that important... did you hear the Britney lost her management firm!

[xchrom]

3. like the oil corporations need a reason to raise the price of oil at this point?

they were going to do it no matter what.

[Supersedeas]

4. Bush's buddies must be loving it -- Hunt Oil with an inside track to Kurdish profits