Cold snap drives US energy prices higher February 9, 2010 - 7:39AM Ads by Google Oil Prices Will Skyrocket
This report will provide you withthe 2010 Oil Price forecaste.
MoneyMorning.com/Oil_Prices
AP
Energy gas prices climbed on Monday as another winter storm was expected to dump even more snow on the US East Coast.
Benchmark crude for March delivery added US73 cents at $US71.92 a barrel on the Nymex. In London, Brent crude gained US74 cents at $US70.33 on the ICE futures exchange.
Already, parts of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington are blanketed in about one metre of snow, knocking out power for tens of thousands of Americans and forcing government offices to close.
As those regions dig out and warm up, analysts said they expected to see sizable draws on the US supply of natural gas and heating oil.
"It's brutally cold," analyst and trader Stephen Schork said. "We got a ton of snow, and more is on the way."
The National Weather Service said on Monday another storm could drop at least 30 cm of fresh powder on the beleaguered Mid-Atlantic. Forecasters said the storm will be strongest in central northern Maryland, northern Delaware, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Forecaster Bruce Sullivan said the agency doesn't "really see any warm weather in sight".
Natural gas for March delivery jumped US9 cents, nearly two per cent, to $US5.605 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
If natural gas prices keep growing, utilities will eventually try to pass those costs along to consumers in higher rates. But it usually takes an extended surge in futures prices to affect home heating bills.
In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil increased US1.69 cents to $US1.8917 a gallon, and petrol rose US1.12 cents at $US1.8976 a gallon.
