Falklands : Hydrocarbons Daily Record (07/08/06)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 07.08.2006 (Article Archived on 21.08.2006)
Several oilfields in Prudhoe Bay, the largest oilfield in the continental US, are shutting down due to poor maintenance.
HYDROCARBONS DAILY RECORD: MONDAY, 07 AUGUST 2006
By J. Brock (FINN)
At 1800 LMT on Monday, 07 August 2006 Light Sweet Crude was up $2.24 Cents and settled at $77.00 on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent Crude gained $2.13 Cents to settle at $78.30 per barrel on London’s ICE Futures Exchange.
TRENDS:
Consumers are reaching breaking point at the pumps as the crude price sharply rises due to the announcement by BP that it is closing down the US’s largest oil field at Prudhoe Bay. Alaska. The closure is due to leakages in the pipeline due to poor maintenance and corrosion. There are concerns about vandalism on infrastructure in Nigeria as well. China and the United States are increasing their demand and, according to some reports, supplies are tight due to precautionary inventory purchases being delayed for a lower price. There seems to be a good supply although tight today.
THE MARKETS
FTSE:
At the close of play, the FTSE100 was 60.60 points lower at 5,828.80 with the FTSE250 down 73.17 points at 9,285.90 and the FTSE Small caps down 16.07 points settling at 3,355.30.
DOW JONES AND NASDAQ:
The major factor in today’s declines on Wall Street was the closure of the BP pipeline at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and the resulting rise in crude prices to record levels.
The Dow Jones Index decreased 21 points or 0.19% and settled at 11,219.38 and the NASDAQ dropped 12.55 points or 0.60% and settled at 2,072.50.
DEVELOPING FACTORS:
(Prudhoe Bay, Alaska)
Oil prices have risen sharply today because infrastructure at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska has to shut down due to poor maintenance. Even though the price of oil means profits and money in the maintenance budget, this was not carried out at BP’s facilities in the area and it is in a poor state of repair with a high level of corrosion causing leaks in the pipeline network. This means that US production is down by 8% or 400,000 barrels a day. The shut down will be phased but it is expected it will take several months to repair poorly maintained infrastructure. BP have apologised for the inconvenience caused.
(Falkland Islands)
Falklands Oil Stocks End of Day Price for the 07.08.06
Desire Petroleum down 0.25 points or 0.67% on the day to stand at 37.25p
Falklands Oil and Gas was down 0.50 points or 0.44% on the day to stand at .112.50p
Rockhopper Exploration was unchanged on the day to stand at 37.50p
Border and Southern was unchanged on the day to stand at 46.00p
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